Climate activists storm Westminster Bridge as MPs return from summer break
By Peter McNamara
Protesters unravelled a 15-metre “Stop Rosebank Oil Field” banner in the heart of London yesterday morning to protest Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s decision to grant new fossil fuel licences in the North Sea.
The group, Fossil Free London, said it is initiating a campaign building up to three days of action at the Oil & Money Summit in October which coincides with the Energy Intelligence Forum.
The forum is expecting to host some of the energy industry’s top executives, including the president and chief executive of Saudi Aramco and the chief executive of Shell.
The stunt, which took place on MPs’ first day back after the summer break, comes after critics suggested the new licences would result in £3.75billion in tax breaks for the Norwegian energy company Equinor, which recorded £15billion in profits in the first half of this year.
Joanna Warrington, a spokeswoman for Fossil Free London, from Brixton, said: “Rishi Sunak wants to give billions of pounds of public money to a giant oil company in exchange for the climate time bomb, which will do absolutely nothing to lower our energy bills. It’s reckless and absurd.”
The group also said the emissions from the Rosebank oil field, located 130 kilometres west of the Shetland Islands, which has faced multiple delays by regulators, would be equivalent to the 28 lowest emission countries combined.
In response to the protests, a Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said: “The UK is a trailblazer in its ambitions to reach net zero by 2050 – forging ahead of many other countries and nearly halving emissions since 1990.
“The transition to non-fossil forms of energy cannot happen overnight and even when we’re net zero, we still need some oil and gas – the industry also significantly boosts the Scottish economy, estimated to support around 90,000 jobs.”
Pictured top: A protester holds up a sign against the Rosebank oil field (Picture: Fossil Free London)
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