Dear all, It’s wonderful that so many of you have come here today! I am Milena from Deutsche Umwelthilfe (German Environmental Aid).

Together with many of you, we have been campaigning intensively for two years against the insane LNG expansion! It’s crazy: This week, LNG companies from all over the world are meeting here in Berlin for an LNG summit at the Hotel Adlon - and this while the world is expected to break the 1.5 degree limit for the first time in 2024! The gas lobby is having a party at the Hotel Adlon and the climate is suffering! The gas lobby has every reason to celebrate: In recent years, an unprecedented level of investment has been made in fossil fuel infrastructure. Both globally and here in Germany. Alone in Germany, LNG terminal ships have been put into operation at four locations at record speed. And the LNG rush continues: in Germany, another three LNG terminals are to be added on land in the next few years! A total of 9 LNG terminals will be built in Germany – alone in 2024! 2024 - New fossil infrastructure in times of climate crisis! We are importing the dirtiest gas in the world: fracked gas from the USA. These gas imports are also responsible for:

• Climate-damaging methane emissions where the corporations extract the gas from the ground
• Unacceptable environmental and health impacts where the LNG is fracked for us and processed in export terminals
• Human rights violations at the export locations

German gas companies with long-term contracts and German banks make this possible. That’s why there’s a party atmosphere at the Adlon. Also among the German participants: RWE, SEFE, BASF, Deutsche Energy Terminal GmbH, Deutsche Regas, which is responsible for the monster terminal in the middle of the protected areas off Rügen. They are all here to make more dirty deals! The consequences: Even more gas infrastructure, even more CO2 emissions, even more human rights violations!

Celebrating at the Adlon while the world burns is cynical! Awarding yourself prizes disdains the consequences of your own actions. That is why we are here again today. We have organized a counter-summit! We have organized this demonstration! We will name the greenwashing of these companies over and over again for what it is! Adding fuel to the fire of the climate crisis. And a slap in the face to the people who are already suffering from the consequences of the climate crisis. I think that the LNG Acceleration Act, which is largely responsible for the German LNG terminals, should now rather be called the Climate Change Acceleration Act - because it enables fossil and climate-damaging projects that would otherwise not have been feasible at all! The LNG pipeline in front of Rügen and the huge associated LNG terminal ships are prime examples of this.

The climate consequences are fatal. The terminal is expected to transport 10 to 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. This single terminal will cause 20 to 30 million tons of CO2, which is twice as much as the particularly climate-damaging Jänschwalde lignite-fired power plant. And Germany is planning a total of 9 terminals! 9 individual terminals. Someone asked me yesterday how I was looking forward to today’s event. I am delighted! I’m delighted that there are so many different groups here today who are holding up a mirror to these companies and also to these politicians who keep rolling out the red carpet for the fossil fuel lobby. Of course it is frustrating that some of the LNG terminals in Germany have already been built. Of course it is frustrating that pipelines have been laid through protected areas. It is frustrating that LNG ships that have failed environmental tests else where are now allowed to pump biocide into the sea here on the German North Sea coast without any ifs or buts. That LNG terminals receive exemptions from the German authorities to allow them to pollute the air with toxic pollutants beyond the applicable limits. But our resources, including legal ones, are far from exhausted. And civil society’s efforts to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their damage are only just beginning! The message we are sending together today is: We are in the thick of it. We are carrying on.

We are often asked why we are so opposed to these terminals. Let me turn that around and say what we are for:

• We are for the protection of our coasts and seas and their biodiversity.
• We are in favor of protecting the environment and the people where natural gas is extracted and transported under catastrophic conditions, for example in the USA.
• And: We are in favor of an energy supply that does not continue to burn up the earth.

But none of this is compatible with the construction of the terminals! This massive LNG expansion in Germany was unnecessary from an energy perspective from the outset. This has been scientifically proven, the natural gas storage facilities are full and the situation reports of the Federal Network Agency show this time and again. What we need is a safety buffer for the climate and not one for fossil fuels!

Despite this, LNG fans continue to conjure up the spectre of supply shortages. This refuted scarcity is also the basis for the LNG Acceleration Act. We have noticed what this law means in the approval procedures for Rügen, and unfortunately we are also noticing it at the other LNG sites. Environmental assessments are not carried out, participation rights are reduced to a minimum and climate damage is not taken into account. In the end, what doesn’t fit is made to fit. But why all this? So that we can now, in the middleof the climate crisis - in a year that breaks the 1.5 degree target - expand more fossil infrastructure that we don’t need more quickly?

That is absurd! We are protesting against this! That is why we are standing here today!