The activists said they were protesting the 'absurd' mode of luxury transport (AFP Photo/Fabrice COFFRINI) |
Geneva (AFP) - Dozens of climate activists blocked access to the private jet terminal at Geneva airport Saturday, demanding a halt to the "absurd" mode of luxury transportation.
Around 100
people took part, organised by pressure group Extinction Rebellion, large
groups sitting in front of three entrances to block access to the building for
several hours.
Extinction
Rebellion describes itself as an international movement using non-violent civil
disobedience "to achieve radical change in order to minimise the risk of
human extinction and ecological collapse".
As
musicians played, protesters wearing armbands with the Extinction Rebellion
logo sang songs and danced around with white, cloud-shaped placards and banners
with slogans like "Be part of the solution, not pollution".
"We
are facing a total climate emergency," Extinction Rebellion spokesman
Micael Metry told AFP.
Activists
block an entrance at Geneva airport's private jet terminal, during a protest
by
the climate change action group Extinction Rebellion (XR) in Geneva,
Switzerland
(AFP Photo/Fabrice COFFRINI)
|
"Private
jets emit 20 times more CO2 per passenger than normal airplanes," he said.
"It is
very important for us to denounce this completely absurd and unjust means of
transportation, which is used by a tiny fraction of the population."
Sonia
Ediger, who said she had come from Lausanne to take part in the protest, called
on the "powerful people of the world" who fly private jets "to
come down out of the clouds".
"We
are seeing the world collapse around us, we see catastrophe after catastrophe,
ever bigger, ever more frequent, all around us," she told AFP, insisting
that "radical change" was needed.
A large
number of Geneva police, some in riot gear, assembled to monitor the
unauthorised protest, but kept their distance for several hours.
At
mid-afternoon, police asked the demonstrators to identify themselves and then
leave in small groups, which they did peacefully.
Police
spokesman Silvain Guillaume-Gentil told the ATS news agency they had not yet
decided whether to bring charges.
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