Counter Balance – Challenging public investment banks is a European coalition of development and environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with extensive experience working on development finance and the international financial institutions (IFIs) as well as campaigning to prevent negative impacts resulting from major infrastructure projects a walk along the pipeline and imagine the devastating consequences for people and the environment from Azerbaijan to Italy if the project is built, according to EcoLur NGO.
Imagine the full scale destruction of thousands of villages, forests, farmlands and the Adriatic sea floor.
This is not a nightmare. This is the plan of the European Union in building the Southern Gas Corridor, a series of pipelines stretching 3,500 kilometers from Azerbaijan to Italy that would worsen climate change, prop up an autocratic regime, cost 45 billion dollars and might become useless in a few years time.
Pipeline backers say the project will provide energy security for Europe. But their gas lobby promises in Brussels, Rome, Baku and elsewhere are now being exposed in the new web documentary Walking The Line.
The film, produced by Counter Balance, Re:Common and Platform, lets you experience a walk along the pipeline and imagine the devastating consequences for people and the environment from Azerbaijan to Italy if the project is built.
The Southern Gas Corridor is politically and financially supported by the EU. But there are at least 3,500 reasons why the project is a massive mistake.
Walking the line shows an EU with its head in the sand when it comes to its commitments to climate and human rights. It sheds light on the suspicious links between the Aliyev clan and the British oil company BP and exposes the interests of big energy corporations lobbying the EU in favour of more gas, despite evidence of declining demand.
But it also highlights that alternatives are possible. Residents in a poor London suburb set up their own renewable energy project to control their own energy needs. Such shining examples show that it is not too late to choose a different path for Europe.
The said web documentary can be viewed here.
