For the second time in a week, Greenpeace activists demonstrated at an Italian power plant Sunday in favour of renewable energy, amid government doubts about signing onto an EU climate change plan. "Sardinia must scrap all obstacles to wind energy," said the environmental NGO, which entered the power plant on the Italian island to protest the use of coal power over wind energy. It also accused leftist regional president Renato Soru of imposing power limits on wind turbines.

Three days earlier, Greenpeace protested at another power station in the northern coastal town of Civitavecchia against threats by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to veto a European Union plan to cut greenhouse gases 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

Italy is among several EU members, mostly eastern European ones, worried about bankrolling the planned cuts amid tough economic times. On Saturday, however, Rome signalled it might sign onto the deal, but only if it is revisited and the costs assessed in 2009, ANSA reported.

(Space Daily, 19/10/2008)