Posted on January, 20 2025
On the initial court hearing date (18 September 2024), the operation of the floating fossil gas regasification system that has sailed into the marine protected area of Alexandroupolis had not started. However, towards the end of 2024, reports in the Greek press about official visits and assurances that "the Independent Natural Gas System of Alexandroupolis will become operational" intensified. This adds political pressure on a serious case of operating a dangerous and environmentally damaging facility in an area where it this is explicitly prohibited by national law: within the Natura 2000 marine protected area "Thrace Marine Area" (GR1110013).
Environmental groups WWF Greece, Greenpeace, Hellenic Ornithological Society, MEDASSET and Society for the Protection of Nature, argue that the Alexandroupolis FSRU should be cancelled, due to the fact that its climate impacts have not at all been assessed, while at the same time it has been licensed within a marine protected area despite the fact that Greek law explicitly prohibits such dangerous industrial plants within Natura 2000 sites.
In the appeal, which was submitted to the Council of State (Greece’s supreme administrative court) in December 2023, the judiciary is called to decide whether a fossil fuel, in this case LNG, can be promoted as an alternative source of energy in conditions of severe climate crisis and, indeed, without a prior assessment of its climate footprint. As all of Greece is severely impacted by record high temperatures for twelve consecutive months, while the climate crisis is already causing particularly serious impacts on the sea of Thrace, which is characterised by a very sharp rise in average sea temperatures, allowing more fossil gas only leads to wasted public subsidies, stranded assets and the planet towards climate catastrophe.
The environmental groups focus on the critical issue of greenhouse gas emissions, particularly methane,* which are not at all examined in the project’s impact assessment. The case builds on the recent European Court of Human Rights ruling (Verein Klimasiniorinnen Schweiz and Others), which held that the European Convention on Human Rights establishes an obligation to prevent the negative impacts of climate change on human life and health.
* According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), while methane has 29.8 times the global warming potential ofCO2 over a 100-year time scale, it is 82.5 times more potent over a 20-year time scale.
More information:
- First Greek climate lawsuit targets LNG license https://www.wwf.gr/en/?14099416/First-greek-climate-lawsuit-targets-LNG-license
- Environmental groups urge Greek supreme court to cancel LNG environmental permit https://www.wwf.gr/en/?12572291/Environmental-groups-urge-Greek-Supreme-Court-to-cancel-LNG-environmental-permit