Greenpeace calls for ban on coal power

Greenpeace wants energy from coal power plants to be banned from the Netherlands grid, director Sylvia Borren of Greenpeace Nederland said in an interview with Dutch newspaper Trouw. According to her, banning coal power will dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help hit the targets in the Urgenda ruling and the climate agreement signed in Paris. The most important thing is that a legal ban on coal power does not put the Netherlands' power supply at risk. And according to Borren, there's no chance of that at the time - there is currently a surplus of Dutch power. And extra CO2-free power plants can be built if necessary. "We need to act discriminating against CO2", Borren said. According to her, coal activities is just as reprehensible as child labor. "The whole chain of coal is no good, from extraction to use. there are bad working conditions, human rights violations and negative consequences for humans and the environment. They simply have to close, especially now that the cost of wind turbines on the North Sea is rapidly declining." Borren also called it "madness" that the Netherlands opened new coal plants - two on Rotterdam's Maasvlakte and one in Eemshaven, Groningen. According to her, that was done on the political decisions of a decade ago, when the expectation was that the Netherlands would face a power shortage and the confidence in green energy was small. This is not the first time Greenpeace is calling on the Netherlands to stop using coal power. Earlier this month the environmental organization called for the closure of all coal plants in response to a report that stated that closing the coal plants would reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the country by 31 percent by 2020. Over the past months there have been numerous calls from various organizations, politicians and scientists for the coal plants to close.