I hope you’ve been enjoying our GreenFaith 2023 Highlights series this week. Today, we’ll be covering France and Germany. Read on!
On Thursday, May 25 in Paris, a day before the annual shareholder’s meeting of the French multinational TotalEnergies, the sun was shining on the Mirabeau footbridge, which crosses the Seine. Immortalized by French poet Guillaume Apollinaire's famous line, “Sous le pont Mirabeau coule la Seine” ("Under the Mirabeau Bridge flows the Seine"), the bridge occupies a familiar place in France’s cultural memory.
Suddenly, two rabbis, a Buddhist master, a Catholic bishop, and other religious figures lined up across the bridge, blocking the famous crossing. They unfurled a banner with a play on the words of the famous poem, “Dans les tuyaux de Total, coule la mort” ("In Total's pipes, death flows"), in reference to the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline, a TotalEnergies mega-project. For 1443 seconds, the religious figures blocked the bridge, marking the 1443 kilometers that the pipeline would slice through Uganda and Tanzania, carrying oil that would quintuple these two countries’ carbon footprints. The demonstrators attracted international attention. “EACOP will displace more than 100,000 people,” the demonstrators explained. “Total is repressing local opposition and insufficiently compensating impacted local communities. This is wrong.”
Six months later, GreenFaith France and GreenFaith Africa together released As If Nothing Is Sacred, a report showcasing Total’s mistreatment of thousands of local grave sites along EACOP’s proposed route. The report attracted international media attention, again demonstrating a formidable multi-religious opposition to the project.
“Croyantes, corps et âme contre EACOP” ("Believers, body and soul against EACOP"), read one of the banners on the morning of May 25. The peaceful physical and spiritual opposition to the fossil fuel industry represents the highest calling of faith communities in the face of the climate emergency.
Germany
Since the mid-1100’s, the small town of Lützerath, Germany had been home to farmers, small shopkeepers, and several churches. In the 2010’s, the German government gave permission to RWE, Germany’s largest coal company, to destroy the town in order to expand the largest coal mine in Europe. In 2022, RWE advanced its plans. Coal mining at Lützerath would almost certainly push the country past its pledged emissions limits, demolishing Germany’s ability to meet the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal.
In early 2023, resistance to mining grew. Peaceful protestors gathered on the property of the one remaining farmer who had refused to sell his land; people of faith were actively engaged. GreenFaith Deutschland became involved, amplifying the voices of faith-based protestors and the makeshift chapel they had erected at the site. RWE and the German police intensified their pressure, with the police violently disrupting peaceful, lawful demonstrations. The protests grew and attracted global media attention.
Later in the year, our German team organized a public action in opposition to the construction of a liquified natural gas plant off Germany’s northern coast. In 2024, our team will continue to raise awareness about the climate crisis and organize opposition to new fossil fuel development among diverse the country’s faith communities.
You can contribute to our 2024 work for climate justice worldwide by donating here.
Thanks,
Grateful for you,
Rose and the GreenFaith Digital Team
Building a Worldwide, Multi-faith Climate and Environmental Movement.
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