WELLINGTON, Feb 16 (AFP) - Environmental activists scaled a mothballed power station in New Zealand Wednesday in protest against coal-burning technologies to mark the entry into effect of the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.
Six protesters from the Greenpeace group set up camp atop the 50-meter-high (165-foot) Marsden B power plant with enough food and water to stay for a "prolonged period", spokesman Steve Abel said.
The activists unfurled a giant yellow banner on the station reading "Save The Climate -- Stop Coal" and featuring the image of a burning Earth.
The banner was a reference to a proposal by the Mighty River Power company to convert Marsden B from an oil to a coal-fired power station.
The protest was timed to coincide with the entry into effect Wednesday of the UN-sponsored 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which aims to cut production of so-called greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
New Zealand has ratified the treaty along with other industrialised nations with the exception of neighhboring Australia and the United States.
"This would be the first coal-fired power station in New Zealand in 25 years at a time when Kyoto has just come into force," said Greenpeace member Kate Lowe from atop the occupied power station.
"Marsden B is a dirty, polluting power project, a climate killer and will leave a toxic legacy. If the Government is serious about Kyoto, then it should stop this project now," she said.
Greenpeace called on Environment Minister Marion Hobbs to block the Marsden plan.
"We must urgently act to stop catastrophic climate change and that must begin with not building any more coal burning power stations," he said.
"If we make use of Kyoto correctly, today should herald the age of renewable energy and the end of coal," he said.
The burning of coal, oil and gas is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions.
02/15/2005 22:46 GMT - AFP