UPDATE: Five of the activists were arrested by the police on Saturday morning. - We asked them to come down from the loading crane, but they didn’t. Therefor, we had to arrest them, says deputy Governor at Svalbard, Lars Fause.
The Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise has spent the last months in the Arctic sailing in the waters around Greenland and now over to Svalbard area. Onboard are both activists and scientists researching the climate changes impact on the Arctic.
Friday morning, 22 activists from the vessel are participating in the action. Svea cold mine are operated by the Norwegain state own company Store Norske Spitsbergen Kullkompani.
A huge banner at the loading crane says “Coal fired Arctic meltdown.”
Svea mine is located in the inner part of the Van Mijenfjord in the southern part of the Spitsbergen Island at 75 degrees north in the Norwegian Arctic.
Four of the Greenpeace climbers are Friday morning hanging over the loading crane stopping the coal from land to be transferred over to the coal bulk vessel Pascha.
Greenpeace says the coal mining at Svalbard should be stopped.
