Oil executives ambushed by climate change activists

Over a dozen Greenpeace volunteers were stationed outside of the 2015 Advantage New Zealand Petroleum Summit this morning with pictures of the deadly effects of climate change. Photo / Supplied

The austere entrance to SKYCITY's conference centre was this morning transformed by apocalyptic images of burning forests, oil-covered wildlife and human suffering.

The grim tableaux, organised by Greenpeace activists, served as a symbolic challenge for the delegates turning up for the first morning of the 2015 Advantage New Zealand Petroleum Summit to redirect their efforts into finding more sustainable energy solutions.

Meanwhile, inside, Energy Minister Simon Bridges prepared his announcement of the government's 2015 block offers for deep sea oil exploration.

"We're challenging the delegates of this oil conference to consider the real impacts of their industry on the world in terms of the extent to which it causes human suffering and causes huge damages to ecology and the environment," says Greenpeace New Zealand spokesman Steve Abel. "We're asking them to move to clean energy."

At the start of the summit Monday, Energy and Resources Minister Simon Bridges announced the government's 2015 block offers for deep sea oil exploration, a set of onshore and offshore territories totalling over 429,000 square kilometers. The offers include two onshore areas in Taranaki and the West Coast Basin as well as four offshore areas in the Reinga-Northland, Taranaki, Pegasus, and Great South Canterbury basins.

The Green Party condemned the block offer in a Monday statement, noting that the government is prioritising profit from oil sales over precious habitats.

"The Government has ignored the huge public concern about the risks of deep sea oil and the risks to our marine life including our 55 remaining Maui's dolphins," says Green Party mining spokesperson Gareth Hughes.

From 7:30am, oil executives entering the convention centre to register for the conference were greeted by photos of the fire-covered seas of the Gulf of Mexico and oil-soaked wildlife following the deadly 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, drought-stricken landscapes, and the wide-eyed face of a young Filipino girl being hoisted up from floodwaters caused by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

"We're depicting images of the impact of climate change and the oil industry," says Abel. "People are increasingly impacted around the world by extreme weather events, super storms, wildfires and, of course, the direct impact of the oil industry when things go wrong."

Climate change scientists have agreed that up to three-quarters of fossil fuels in discovered reserves can never be burned if the planet is to remain below the two degrees Celsius threshold that is considered safe, Abel says. The process of searching for oil beneath the ocean floor involves exploration ships continuously emitting powerful seismic blasts that disturb marine mammals such as the crucially endangered Maui's Dolphin.

Thousands of protesters mimicked such blasts by beating on drums at Sunday's march against deep sea oil exploration, which started at Victoria Park and continued down Victoria Street to the Federal Street convention centre entrance.

Around 4000 demonstrators joined local environmental organizations yesterday in a march against deep sea oil drilling. Photo / Supplied

"It was the large resounding sound which imitated the sound of seismic testing that is happening right now in our oceans, oil exploration and the impact that has on whales, dolphins and other marine life," says Abel. "We used that [the drumming] as a way of expressing our opposition."

The march was organised by a coalition of environmental groups including Greenpeace, 350 Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining and Oil Free Auckland. An estimated 4000 demonstrators participated, Abel says.

"It was amazing," he says. "We had a great turnout."

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