EUROPE: Environmental protests target airport industry

Climate protesters in France shut down Bordeaux’s airport in October. XR activists in the Netherlands also staged a protest at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s major air hubs, in December, blocking two of the airport’s entrances. Some protesters glued their hands to the ground and others formed human chains; 14 people were detained. Protesters objected to support the airport had been granted under the pandemic and the low tax on air fuel, and called for the airport to be shut down due to its high emissions. Similarly, in Finland, state support for Finnair, the national airline, during the pandemic, with no environmental conditions attached, was one of the issues that motivated protests.