Sixteen environmental activists were arrested outside the Department for Transport in London today after they used chains, plywood boards and cars to blockade the entrances “to stop officials and Ministers lobbying for tar sands.” The two main doorways into the Ministry were closed off for more than seven hours until police arrested the campaigners for alleged aggravated trespass.
Greenpeace carried out the direct action following revelations that the British government has been offering high-level support to Canadian and oil industry lobbyists with vested interests in the expansion of highly polluting tar sands mining, and British Ministers have worked to try and block a key proposal that would prevent the dirtiest oil in the world from entering petrol pumps across Europe. (1)
Campaigners from the environmental group also demonstrated outside UK embassies in Berlin, Paris and Stockholm today over the issue.
This coming Friday officials from all 27 EU member states will meet in Brussels for an important discussion and possible vote on the European proposal – called the ‘Fuel Quality Directive’ - that would effectively ban tar sands from Europe for being too polluting.
Greenpeace energy campaigner, Paul Morrozzo, explained, “British Ministers should be more concerned with creating green jobs in Europe than dirty jobs in Canada, but instead they’ve been caving in to the demands of oil industry lobbyists. This morning our volunteers prevented them from doing Big Oil’s dirty work but now Nick Clegg should intervene and rescue his party’s environmental reputation by backing a European ban on tar sands.”
Today’s activity in London coincided with the opening day of the UN climate talks in South Africa.
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Notes:
(1) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/nov/27/canada-oil-sands-uk-backing?intcmp=122
