Blockadia map reveals global rise of anti-fossil fuel obstruction

A new interactive map shows the rise of Blockadia. A phenomenon where people try to block fossil fuel projects. In the last decade, Blockadia actions started in at least 48 places, compared to only 8 that started in the ten previous years.

The map’s release coincides with the Peoples Climate March in Bonn this weekend. World leaders will gather on Monday to discuss the lack of progress on the already agreed goal to minimize greenhouse gas emissions.

On Sunday, the ‘Ende Gelände’ group plans to block a lignite coal mine near to Bonn. This is just one of 70 cases pictured in the Blockadia Map.

In 16 cases, the targeted fossil fuel project was stopped.

    Nick Meynen, Environmental Justice Project Officer at the European Environmental Bureau said: “Blockadia activist hate to risk jail or even death for what they do, but in the face of the massive political failure on climate change they think more in terms of what is legitimate than what is legal. They put their safety at risk to protect all of us. Having a scientific community supporting them, for example with the Blockadia Map, means a lot these people.”

During the research for Blockadia Map, researchers from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Lund University (Sweden) and Universidad del Magdalena (Colombia) have found that indigenous people have been the oppose first in most of the contested fossil fuel projects.

Both the World Meteorological Organisation and the UN’s environmental body raised the alarm this week about the acceleration of greenhouse gas emissions and the associated consequences.

This map comes in a time where although IMO claims that progress have been made in GHG reduction strategy, during the second meeting of the Intersessional Working Group on reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions from ships, on 23-27 October, a group of Pacific Island and mainly European states claimed that that the shipping’s industry strategy for GHG is inefficient.