Greenpeace’s announcement is official (there are videos, photos and messages on twitter and even a press release) and rather relaxed and speaks of “about 1,500 Volkswagen Group car keys with borrowed combustion engines”. For the Police, the action carried out last Wednesday by a dozen activists of the environmental movement is configured instead as aggravated theft and violation of private property because the abduction (albeit temporary, at least according to Greenpeace) has led to access to the large Emden, overlooking the North Sea. The not too symbolic demonstration action took place on two acts: the first took place in the northern part of Germany with the “provisional collection” of the keys, the second, on Friday, in the southern part, on the Zugspitze (almost 3,000 meters above sea level), in the near the borders with Austria, the highest mountain in the country.
It is there that a banner of about 100 square meters was also displayed with the inscription “Von wegen Klimaschutz” (other than environmental protection). The keys have already been seized by the police who reached the summit with snowmobiles and also made the writing disappear.
There was nothing accidental in the operation: “A key moment for the climate” was the motto that animated the initiative. With which Greenpeace urges a quicker farewell to combustion engines. The organization had already staged several actions against the group: one at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2011, when a huge banner was displayed to criticize the emissions of compact up! and the other, in November 2015, following the dieselgate at the entrance to the Wolfsburg headquarters plant. The activists chose Emden because even in the year of the pandemic, 2020, the 735,000 cars of the group loaded in the port of the city and destined for export would have caused CO2 emissions of around 42 million tons, almost as much as the total of the entire Switzerland, which reaches 46 million. Greenpeace recalled that despite the ecological turnaround, the production of the Volkswagen group is still 90% linked to combustion engines: last year, the organization stressed, just 2.5% of the models sold were really electric. “Volkswagen – said Benjamin Stephan, Greenpeace’s mobility expert – is still one of the most environmentally harmful companies in the world”.
Undue theft risks leading to a delay of one or two weeks in deliveries and could also lead to the replacement of blocks with possible costs close to 1,000 euros per machine. The group’s response, which undoubtedly has something to be forgiven, was rather “understanding”. Ralf Brandstätter, the number one of the brand, stigmatized the action, but also added that Volkswagen is open to “constructive criticism”: “The key to protecting the environment – he summarized – is in the long-term common social effort. And Volkswagen will do its part ”. Despite criticism from Greenpeace, it has already begun to take on this responsibility. The dieselgate seems to have served.
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