COPENHAGEN — Hundreds of climate activists protested Saturday against the use of fossil fuels, but were blocked from entering a coal-firing plant they had hoped to shut down by chaining themselves to conveyor belts.
Police held back the 1,500 or so protesters from entering the coal- and oil-fueled Amagervaerket power station on Copenhagen's Amager Island, police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch said.
About 100 people were taken into custody, Danish news agency Ritzau said.
The protesters said they had aimed to stop operations at the power plant, owned by Swedish energy firm Vattenfall, in order to draw attention to their demands for stronger climate policies from politicians and energy companies before the U.N. climate conference in December in Copenhagen.
One of the plant's three units uses coal, while the other two have been converted into biomass-firing units.
Global leaders hope to reach a new agreement at the December conference to limit greenhouse gas emissions thought to cause global warming. The agreement would replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which bound 37 industrial countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent of 1990 levels by 2012.
The Kyoto accord placed no obligations on developing countries, but now industrialized nations want countries including India and China to agree to stall and eventually cut their emissions.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
