Environmental activist Greta Thunberg in a procession of demonstrators demanding the end of a project of eight new oil drilling near Arcachon, February 11, 2024 in Bordeaux (AFP/Thibaud MORITZ)
Environmental activist Greta Thunberg marched in Bordeaux on Sunday in a procession of several thousand demonstrators demanding the end of a project of eight new oil drilling near Arcachon (Gironde), while the exploitation of hydrocarbons must be stopped. gradually stop in France by 2040.
“Fed up oil” or “And what else?”, could we read on the signs of activists gathered at the call of the Stop Pétrole Bassin d’Arcachon collective, which claimed 3,000 demonstrators – 1,200 according to the prefecture .
Environmental activist Greta Thunberg in a procession of demonstrators demanding the end of a project of eight new oil drilling near Arcachon, February 11, 2024 in Bordeaux (AFP/Thibaud MORITZ)
“The exit from fossil fuels must begin now by refusing this project,” demanded Natalie Hervé, spokesperson for the collective, describing these drillings as a “bad signal” for France’s environmental ambitions.
Greta Thunberg, activist in the fight against global warming, stopped off in Bordeaux the day after a trip to the south of France to support opponents of the A69 Toulouse-Castres motorway project.
The young Swedish woman, Palestinian keffiyeh and pink raincoat, did not speak on Sunday. But she danced and chanted slogans in French and English against the oil industry.
These new drillings near Arcachon are desired by the Canadian group Vermilion Energy, holder until January 1, 2035 of a concession operated since the 1960s in the commune of Teste-de-Buch, whose forest had been ravaged by the monster fires of summer 2022.
Demonstrators demand the stopping of a project of eight new oil drilling near Arcachon, February 11, 2024 in Bordeaux (AFP/Thibaud MORITZ)
Around fifty wells currently produce around 1,500 barrels/day.
After a month of public inquiry, the investigating commissioner issued a favorable opinion.
The investigation is now being carried out by the Regional Directorate for the Environment, Planning and Housing (Dreal) and the project will then be submitted to a departmental committee responsible for giving an opinion in the spring.
Then it will be up to the prefect of Gironde to decide. In the event of authorization, the opponents suggest that they will refer the matter to the administrative court.
Demonstrators demand the stopping of a project of eight new oil drilling near Arcachon, February 11, 2024 in Bordeaux (AFP/Thibaud MORITZ)
“These oil wells would be an aberration in a country like France. We don’t need them,” declared Marie Toussaint, head of the Europe Écologie-Les Verts list in the next European elections, present in Bordeaux.
In 2017, the government voted for a gradual cessation of hydrocarbon exploitation by 2040.
At the beginning of December, the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu judged that, as long as France needed oil, it was “no worse for it to come from here than to have it come from the end of the world” .
© 2024 AFP
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