EQUO protest plans to drill off the Axarquia coast

MORE than 50 people joined the EQUO environmental political party to protest against plans to drill off the coast between Nerja and Torrox.

Canadian multinational CNWL Oil will be drilling for gas and oil for about a month this winter off the coast of Malaga, Granada and Almeria.

The prospecting was requested in 2006, but was granted less than a year ago. The company has had headquarters in Spain for 35 years and collaborates with Repsol YPF. Equo said that the activity “generates a high risk to the safety of humans and marine life” and criticized the government’s “lack of interest in sustainable energy policies”.

The tourism sector along the coast of Andalucia is also worried that it will damage trade due to contamination in the sea and sight of oil rigs from the coast, changing the attractive appearance of the area.

Local fishermen are against the project. If the drilling goes ahead, Equo reports, the sea grasses on the bed of the sea will be damaged, which will in turn affect the biodiversity of the area, reducing the number of fish.

EQUO instead suggests more investment in clean and renewable energy, so that by 2050, all energy will come from renewable sources, as this is the date when experts say the world’s deposits of hydrocarbons will have run out.