Demonstrators disrupted the first day of a London event bringing together top oil and gas industry executives on Tuesday, with environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg denouncing “closed-door” deals between the sector and politicians.
“Behind these closed doors (…), politicians without stature are making deals and compromises with lobbyists from the destructive fossil fuel sector,” the Swedish environmental activist said at a press conference organised on the sidelines of the demonstration.
She was later arrested by police, various media present at the event reported. However, this was not immediately confirmed by the British police.
In a statement released by the environmental NGO Fossil Free London before her arrest, Thunberg said “we have no choice but to disrupt” because “our world is being swept away by greenwashing and lies.” She added that the fossil fuel industry had "created loopholes to allow their business to go on at the expense of the planet."
Hundreds of demonstrators had crowded into the InterContinental Park Lane hotel in the UK capital on Tuesday morning, blocking all entrances to the three-day Energy Intelligence Forum conference, where TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné and Shell Managing Director Wael Sawan were scheduled to speak on Tuesday.
To the sound of almost fifty drums, demonstrators chanted “Stop oil, stop gas” and “Nothing can stop us, another world is possible.”
For Fossil Free London, which organised the protest, “the overwhelming majority” of the record profits recorded last year by companies in the sector “are directly reinvested in the expansion of fossil fuels, not in the green energy they claim to support.”
Many Energy Intelligence Forum participants tried unsuccessfully to enter the premises, alongside huge yellow banners calling for “oil money out.” Five protesters were arrested “on suspicion of obstructing” the public thoroughfare, London police announced on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday morning.
The activists also denounced the fact that the president of COP28, the UN’s annual climate conference scheduled to take place from 30 November to 12 December in Dubai, is none other than the head of the United Arab Emirates’ oil company, Sultan al-Jaber.
