Greenpeace activists on Saturday held a news conference in the northern Adriatic port of Rijeka, warning that INA's gas platform Ivana D, which sank into the sea a year ago, was still in the Adriatic. Pročitaj više

The activists warned that the gas infrastructure was obsolete and called on the Croatian authorities to deal with the problem.

The Greenpeace boat Arctic Sunrise is visiting Rijeka again after eight years and Greenpeace activists will be collecting this weekend signatures for a petition by the European Citizens’ Initiative seeking an EU ban on fossil fuel advertisements and related sponsorships.

Along with Greenpeace, the campaign was launched by more than 20 European organisations and its aim is to collect one million signatures in a year, after which the European Commission has the duty to respond and consider implementing the campaign demands into EU laws, it was said at the news conference, held on the Arctic Sunrise.

Greenpeace programme director Petra Andric spoke about the danger of methane leaks during fossil gas extraction.

She said that the fossil industry had been reassuring the public for decades that its plants were safe but that accidents happened globally during fossil fuel extraction, transport and storage, with frequent methane leaks from gas units.

One such accident happened last year in the northern Adriatic, where the gas platform Ivana D disappeared, with the relevant authorities not knowing for days where it was and what had happened, Andrić said, noting that the gas platform was still lying on the seabed.

Explaining why they were so concerned about natural gas, Andric said that what was called natural gas should be called fossil gas because it was a fossil fuel.

It is perceived as a transition, less harmful fossil fuel, she said, adding that the main component of fossil fuel was methane, a greenhouse gas with a huge potential for global warming if it leaked directly into the atmosphere.

Greenpeace wants the Croatian government and INA to check all off-shore gas platforms for possible methane leaks and to inform the public of their findings, she said, noting that the government should ban investments in fossil infrastructure in the Adriatic and turn to renewable energy sources, primarily solar energy.