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fossil free london
Greta Thunberg Arrested in Direct Action at Global Fossil Fuel Summit in London
"The elites of the Oil and Money Conference, they have no intention of transition," Thunberg said ahead of her arrest. "Their plan is to continue this destructive surge of profits. That is why we have to take direct action."
Oct 17, 2023
Climate leader Greta Thunberg was among at least 27 people arrested in London on Tuesday at a rally against the Energy Intelligence Forum, where fossil fuel CEOs rubbed elbows with policymakers including British Energy Minister Graham Stuart and, as one campaigner said, continued "hijacking our politics to keep us hooked on their dirty fuel."
Thunberg gathered with advocates from Fossil Free London, which organized the direct action, and others outside the Intercontinental Hotel for the first of three days of protests.
The forum—formerly known as the "Oil and Money Conference"—is taking place from October 17-19, with speakers including Shell CEO Wael Sawn and TotalEnergies Chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanné.
Campaigners chanted, "Oily money out" as the executives attended events that promised to ask questions such as, "Who will pay for the transition and how?" and discuss whether global climate summits such as the annual United Nations Climate Change Conference are "still relevant."
The oil giants are convening as U.K. households are struggling with "dramatic rises in food and energy costs," said Fossil Free London, with about one in five people in the country now living in poverty amid the cost-of-living crisis while fossil fuel companies report record-breaking profits.
"The people in power are knowingly leading us to the edge of the precipice," said Thunberg before what her fellow campaigners described as her violent arrest. "We cannot let this continue."
According to campaigner Joanna Warrington, Metropolitan Police officers were "pushing press, pushing people over, pushing everyone" when they began making arrests.
"'We were linking arms when the police forced their way in and singled out Greta," said Warrington. "She was dragged down the street at speed to a police van where they refused to say where she was being taken... She was searched by a male police officer as she was put into the back of a police van alone."
"The police are again doing the dirty work of the oil elite," she added. "Greta deserves better, the world deserves better, we all deserve better."
Hours before her arrest, Thunberg addressed her fellow protesters and warned the public not to be fooled by the climate and decarbonization pledges of companies like Shell, which announced this year it would not move forward with earlier plans to curb oil production.
"The elites of the Oil and Money Conference, they have no intention of transition," she said. "Their plan is to continue this destructive surge of profits. That is why we have to take direct action to stop this and to kick oily money out of politics."
Shell reported nearly $40 billion in profits in 2022, its highest ever, while BP, which was also represented at the forum, reported a record $27.7 billion.
As Fossil Free London noted, both companies signed major deals in the last two years with Infosys, an information technology firm founded by the father-in-law of Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. His party also received $4.2 million, or £3.5 million, from people and groups "linked to climate denial, fossil fuels, and high-pollution industries" in 2022.
The British government last month green-lit oil and gas drilling in Rosebank, the U.K.'s largest unused fossil fuel field, even as experts warned last month was the hottest September on record and scientists linked heatwaves, wildfires, and other extreme weather to fossil fuel extraction and planetary heating.
"We've all seen the floods and wildfires," said organizer Nuri Syed Corser at the rally on Tuesday. "We all know the climate crisis is a threat to our safety and our future. We know we must stop burning oil and gas. But the super-rich oil bosses in this hotel are hijacking our politics to keep us hooked on their dirty fuel. They are spending millions lobbying our politicians to water down climate policies."
"That's why so many people are here," Corser said, "to call out this corruption and get oily money out of our politics."
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Shell Employees Urged to Revolt as Oil Giant Faces Internal Backlash for Ditching Renewables
"Shell bosses sacrifice our safety for short-term profits, even their employees see it," said one campaigner. "No point waiting for them to grow a conscience."
Sep 29, 2023
Anti-fossil fuel campaigners on Friday urged employees of oil and gas giant Shell to speak out as loudly as possible about their objections to the company's pivot away from renewable energy, after thousands of workers expressed support for an angry open letter penned by two of their colleagues.
On the company's private platform, a letter published by Lisette de Heiden and Wouter Drinkwaard of Shell's low-carbon division garnered 1,000 "likes" and 80,000 views earlier this month and was reported on by Reuters Wednesday.
The two employees wrote that they were "deeply concerned" by an announcement made in June by CEO Wael Sawan that Shell would abandon plans to scale back oil production each year for the rest of the decade in support of its stated goal to become a net zero emissions company by 2050.
De Heiden and Drinkwaard told Sawan and the company's executive committee that Shell's earlier statements about ramping up renewable energy production were "the reason we work here."
While Shell has only devoted 1.5% of its overall spending on solar and wind power projects, the employees said they had been hopeful that the company would carry out its "ambition to be a leader in the energy transition," which leading scientists say must cut global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 in order to limit planetary heating to 1.5°C.
Joanna Warrington, a campaigner with Fossil Free London—which has rallied at Shell's headquarters and events to pressure it to end oil and gas extraction in the U.K.—urged other Shell employees to continue speaking out against the company's fossil fuel projects, and to consider leaving the company as a public statement.
"There's no point waiting for [executives] to grow a conscience," Warrington told Euronews. "If you work at Shell, you can help us."
Clare Farrell, a campaigner with the global grassroots movement Extinction Rebellion, added that leaders at Shell can't be counted on to push the renewable energy transition forward "because they are a fossil fuel company, NOT an energy company."
In addition to reversing plans to scale back oil and gas investments, Shell split up the low-carbon and renewables division De Heiden and Drinkwaard work in and terminated the role of global head of renewables.
Several executives have left the department since the changes were made, Reuters reported.
Shell had been developing offshore wind and other renewable projects in Ireland, France, and India, but announced in recent months it would end those investments.
Last year, a senior safety consultant announced in a viral video message that she would no longer work with Shell, her client for 11 years, citing its "disregard for climate change risks." She also called on others working in the oil and gas industry to "walk away while there's still time."
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