PRESS RELEASE
CLIMATE CAMP SCOTLAND
COMMUNITIES AND ACTIVISTS COMING TOGETHER IN GRANGEMOUTH FOR SUMMER CLIMATE CAMP, 12-17 JULY
CONTACT
ccscotlandpress@gmail.com
Community groups, local people and climate activists will assemble at Grangemouth in one month’s time for a five day ‘climate camp’. The event will be a people-powered ‘festival of resistance’ to build relationships between workers, community members and climate campaigners.
The camp is taking place in the Grangemouth area as the INEOS site is Scotland’s most polluting, with annual climate emissions of 2,400,000 tonnes (1). The camp will be the culmination of a year of events in the area which has included walking tours, discussion days and a theatre performance in May (2).
Last month INEOS refused to participate in a Parliamentary inquiry about transition at Grangemouth (3). Instead of investing in green jobs, billionaire owner Jim Ratcliffe is using his spare cash to buy football club Manchester United, at a time when residents living around the INEOS plant are blighted by pollution and struggling with food and gas bills.
The climate camp organisers say that Grangemouth could be renewed with well-paid jobs in sustainable industries, but the shift must be led by people, not big business. Inquiry evidence given earlier this year by community groups and trade unions showed widespread support for green jobs and renewable energy manufacturing in Grangemouth (4).
Local resident Dylan Welsh and former youth striker said: "It's fantastic that Grangemouth has been chosen as the location for this year's Climate Camp! It's an opportunity for residents and the wider Falkirk community to come together and push back on INEOS's polluting presence making it clear to Mr Ratcliffe that continuing to enrich himself at the expense of his workers and the planet is no longer an option. It's a chance for Grangemouth to begin looking to a cleaner and healthier future free from the oil and gas giant."
Falkirk residents Cath and Richard Dyer added: “From our home in Falkirk we can see and hear the flares from the industry in Grangemouth that is ruining the world for our grandchildren.”
Jessica Gaitan Johannesson, Climate Camp Scotland said: "While INEOS makes hundreds of millions in profit each year, the people of Grangemouth pay the price with their health, workers pay with their job security, and all of us with the collapse of our climate. We can build truly sustainable communities, but we must be led by those whose lives are being risked."
In 2022 Climate Camp took place in Aberdeen, bolstering the local campaign to defend St. Fittick’s Park from being lost to a new industrial development. In 2021 the camp protested with local people against illegal gas flaring at Exxon and Shell’s Mossmorran plant, Fife.
The exact location within the Grangemouth area will be announced on the day before the camp takes place, but organisers can confirm it will be within easy reach of public transport and wheelchair accessible.
Anyone and everyone is invited to sign-up to attend Climate Camp Grangemouth by filling out this form.
FREE PHOTOS of previous climate camp events:
NOTES TO EDITORS
(1) INEOS controls four sites in the top 20 climate polluters in Scotland, all in Grangemouth town. See:
(2) Play comes to Grangemouth to rally youngsters to challenge the climate crisis
(3) Petrochemical giant Ineos snubs Scottish Government net zero committee refusing to 'go on the record' - Falkirk Herald
(5) Scottish Parliament net zero inquiry into the future of Grangemouth https://yourviews.parliament.scot/efw/net-zero-grangemouth/consultation/published_select_respondent
(5) Climate Camp Scotland are bringing workers, front-line communities, and climate action groups together to build the movement for a swift just transition from fossil fuels, and to take mass action that brings about climate justice. www.climatecampscotland.com
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