Norwegian Grandparents don’t give up!

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE NORWEGIAN GRANDPARENTS CLIMATE CAMPAIGN

Norwegian Grandparents have spearheaded a demand from 28 Norwegian organizations and political parties that Statoil must withdraw from its participation in the Canadian tar sands. Halfdan Wiik, the leader of the Norwegian Grandparents Climate Campaign, explained:

“Grandparents cannot accept that our grandchildren shall inherit an unsustainable world, plagued by serious climate changes. Therefore, we implore Statoil to be the first to withdraw from the dirtiest of enterprises. These oil resources must remain in the ground, if we are to avoid catastrophic climate changes.

Today, Tuesday April 17th, Statoil’s board of directors will receive a letter from 28 different Norwegian organizations and political parties, requesting the board to withdraw Statoil from Canadian tar sands.  Fronting the initiative is the Norwegian Grandparents Climate Campaign- GCC. A large number of grandparents will present the letter at 1300  hours at Statoil’s main office in Oslo. Other environmental organizations supporting the letter are Greenpeace Norway, WWF Norway and Concerned Scientists Norway.

The organizations are appealing directly to Statoils board because the Norwegian government and the major parties in parliament have so far refused to instruct Statoil to withdraw from Canadian tar sands.  As the Norwegian state owns 67 % of Statoil shares, all Norwegian citizens are in fact shareholders of  Statoil and ought to be heard.

The Norwegian Grandparents Climate Campaign represents many men and women who have held high political office or have prominent positions in Norwegian society.

“We shall show Norway an elder boom out of the ordinary: grandparents that will not tolerate that Statoil recklessly carry on with such dirty projects. We believe that it is necessary that our generation makes a forceful stand on such serious and essential problems to which that today’s decision makers seems to close their eyes!”,  Halfdan Wiik concludes.

For further information, please contact the Norwegian Grandparents Climate Campaign:

Mr. Halfdan Wiik, leader of GCC mobile: (cc: 0047) 971 96  809,email:halfdan.wiik@hsh.no

Mrs. Mette Newth, member of GCC’s steering committee, mobile: 984 14 789,email:mcnewth@online.no

Mr. Inge Johansen, member of GCC and former chair of Statoil’s board, mobile: 957 57 731,email:ingejtj@online.no