Hundreds of protesters gathered at a five-star hotel in London, the InterContinental on Park Lane, the venue for the Energy Intelligence Forum (EIF), which brings together fossil fuel executives and government ministers.
Leading human rights organisations and climate activists have condemned the government as well as the Met Police after Greta Thunberg was arrested at a protest against a meeting of fossil fuel executives and ministers.
Activists blockaded the major forum for oil and gas representatives, referred to as the ‘Oscars of Oil’ where the world’s leading energy companies and politicians gather, in protest against record-breaking fossil fuel profits and lobbying.
Hundreds of protesters gathered at a five-star hotel in London, the InterContinental on Park Lane, the venue for the Energy Intelligence Forum (EIF), which brings together fossil fuel executives and government ministers.
Before joining the protest, Thunberg said: “Behind these closed doors at the oil and money conference, spineless politicians are making deals and compromises with lobbyists from destructive industries, the fossil fuel industry.
“People all over the world are suffering and dying from the consequences of the climate crisis caused by these industries who we allow to meet with our politicians and have privileged access to.
“The elites of the oil and money conference, they have no intention of transition. Their plan is to continue this destructive search for profits. That is why we have to take direct action to stop this and to kick oil money out of politics. We have no other option but to put our bodies outside this conference and to physically disrupt [it].”
Footage online showed the Swedish climate activist being bundled into the back of a van by police after taking part in protests.
Jo Maugham, Director of the Good Law Project, posted on X: “What a brave, democratic, free speech loving, nation we have become under the so-called Conservative Party.”
Another social media user wrote: “Greta Thunberg has just been arrested in London. She has only ever been involved in peaceful protest, bringing the worlds’ attention to climate change. What are the metropolitan police doing arresting her? Are we a police state?”
The Environmental Justice Foundation wrote: “At the London oil summit today,
@GretaThunberg was arrested for standing up for people and planet.
“Fossil fuels are driving our planet to the brink – for the profits of a wealthy few, people across the world are suffering needless death and destruction.
“This cannot continue.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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