#GretaThunberg; #GretaThunbergCharged; ClimateActivist; #Demonstration; #OilAndGasConference; #London
20-year-old Climate activist Greta Thunberg, one of 26 people charged, has reportedly been charged with breaching a section of the Public Order Act that allows police to impose limits on public assemblies following her arrest at a demonstration against an oil and gas industry conference in London, England.
The Swedish campaigner, Thunberg with 26 other protesters had gathered outside the luxury InterContinental Hotel during the Energy Intelligence Forum while chanting “oily money out” and sought to block access to the hotel on Tuesday, the Metropolitan Police force said Wednesday.
The police said that Thunberg and other protesters were taken to a police station before being released overnight on bail until a Nov. 15 hearing at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Featuring speakers including the chief executives of Shell, Saudi Arabia’s Aramco and Norway’s Equinor, as well as the U.K. ‘s energy security minister, the three-day conference runs until Thursday.
Fossil fuel companies had been accused by the protesters of deliberately slowing the global energy transition to renewables in order to make more profit.
The protesters also opposed the British government’s recent approval of drilling for oil in the North Sea, off the Scottish coast.
A global youth movement started by Thunberg in 2018 after staging weekly protests outside the Swedish Parliament demanding stronger efforts to fight climate change.
Recently a Swedish court had fined her for disobeying police during an environmental protest in Sweden.
