Greenpeace activists on Tuesday called on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to plan a fossil gas phase-out by 2035 and encourage energy transition to renewable sources of energy in the EU as gas is a major cause of the climate crisis.

Activists from Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Ireland mounted the offshore gas platform Ivana B in the northern Adriatic, some 50 kilometres from the Croatian coast, displaying a large banner with the image of Von der Leyen and calling on her to make the change.

Fossil gas and other fossil fuels cause wars and cause harm to people around the world. The fossil fuel industry is growing and increasing its profit while citizens have to cope with staggeringly high energy prices. European leaders have allowed this crisis to happen, the head of Greenpeace’s regional anti-gas campaign, Eszter Matyas, said.

Calling for a transition to renewable energy sources, Matyas said leaders still believe the “green lies” of the fossil fuel industry which calls gas a transition fuel on the road to clean energy. “Climate science is clear about fossil gas being a big part of the problem of the climate crisis and it needs to be phased out by 2035 at the latest to prevent a climate disaster,” she said.

“Europe must not allow any new gas platforms, new gas pipelines or gas power plants. Fossil gas is a problem, regardless of whether it comes from Russia, Norway, Algeria, Qatar or Croatia,” Matyas said.

“The EU should introduce a ban on Russian gas to stop the co-financing of the war in Ukraine but it should also remove fossil gas from the EU taxonomy of sustainable investments,” the activists said.

Clean solutions such as the energy of the sun and wind, heat pumps, building insulation and electrification are now ripe and can be used across Europe, however, many countries lag behind in terms of the use of renewables, they said.

“Isn’t it absurd that in countries like Croatia, which compares to Italy and Greece in terms of sunshine, politicians are ignoring the potential of solar energy? At the same time, fossil companies like INA, and thus MOL, continue to extract fossil gas from the Adriatic while we can obtain all the necessary energy from clean and safe renewable sources,” said Petra Andric of Greenpeace Croatia.