‘Oil belongs in the soil’, Cyprus environmental group says

Friends of the Earth (FoE) Cyprus organised an event in Nicosia on Sunday to highlight the upcoming Climate Summit in Paris by symbolically burying fossil fuels and saying ‘oil must be kept in the soil’.

Members of the public who took part wrote down solutions and actions to tackle climate change, and build a clean and safe 100% renewable future, FoE said.

The organisation called the Cyprus government, as well as the governments of the EU member states, to stop favouring fossil fuels and promote clean energy sources that will ensure the future of the planet and its people.

“The EU and member states must cut greenhouse gas emissions and establish radical measures in order to achieve the reduction of emissions. Europe has the potential and the responsibility to do more to speed-up the energy transition, and increase its efforts to tackle climate change for the benefit of the climate and citizens across the world,” it said, adding that the summit in Paris could help end reliance on fossil fuels and reshape the energy system.

It said that throughout 2015 and beyond people from around the globe and Friends of the Earth groups would keep up the pressure on national governments to take urgent and appropriate action in line with what science and justice demand, as well as implementing their own solutions to the climate crisis.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.