Greenpeace activists held in Belgium after occupying gas terminal

Fourteen Greenpeace activists have been held for more than 48 hours after trespassing into and occupying a liquid natural gas (LNG) terminal in Zeebrugge, Belgium

Greenpeace Belgium said it was working for their release. Valerie Del Re, director of Greenpeace Belgium, said: “It’s not our activists, but gas companies like Fluxys who are the criminals in this story.

“They continue to invest in new fossil gas infrastructure, which is a disaster for human rights and for the climate. It is impossible to understand why environmental activists would be detained for so long.”

On Saturday morning, activists from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK sailed inflatables into the terminal, operated by Fluxys, a Belgium LNG transportation company.

They climbed on to the quays used for loading and unloading LNG tankers and displayed a banner reading “Gas kills” while others entered on kayaks. They maintained the occupation for six hours before they were removed by police.Del Re added: “Our non-violent actions of civil disobedience always follow the rule of do-no-harm. They are a legitimate means of opposing practices that threaten all of us.

“We applaud the courage of our activists and we are doing all we can to help them in these difficult times.”

Greenpeace said the action was to raise awareness of the role of gas operators such as Fluxys in the massive increase in LNG imports to Europe from the US. The environmental protest organisation said it was calling for all new gas infrastructure to be stopped and for a European plan to phase out gas by 2035.

According to research by Greenpeace, Europe increased its imports of LNG from the US by 140% in 2022, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. Eight new LNG terminals are under construction in the European Union, and plans for a further 38 are under consideration, the group said.

Greenpeace’s latest protest comes as climate activist groups have been staging road block protests all over Europe. Just Stop Oil sister groups, all funded by the same US philanthropists, the Climate Emergency Fund, now operate in 11 countries.

Protesters in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland have all taken action in the past month, using road block and slow march tactics pioneered in the UK.

Just Stop Oil supporters were back on the streets of central London on Monday morning, with groups marching from four different locations in Lambeth and Westminster from 10am.

Last week, the Home Office announced a change to legislation to allow police to more quickly ban slow march protests, after the sight of police forced to facilitate protesters’ actions enraged drivers and rightwing commentators.

cover photo: Activists in the Fluxys gas terminal in Zeebrugge. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet/EPA