Greta Thunberg is arrested at protest in London – 10/17/2023 – Environment

Environmental activist Greta Thunberg was detained this Tuesday (17) in London, at a demonstration during the first day of an event that brings together executives from the oil and gas industry.

During the morning, hundreds of protesters blocked all entrances to the hotel where the Energy Intelligence Forum is taking place.

The Swedish activist was detained in the early afternoon by two agents and taken to a vehicle.

The English police had already announced on the social network X (formerly Twitter) the arrest of five protesters accused of obstructing a public road.

Greta told the press this morning that “behind these closed doors”, “politicians conclude agreements and commitments with people from the destructive fossil fuel sector lobby”.

Protesters who participated in the events carried banners with phrases such as “oil heavyweights must pay”, displayed by Greenpeace activists, who climbed the facade of the hotel where the meeting was taking place.

“I have six grandchildren. I have nightmares about their future,” said Dora Marden, a 75-year-old retired Londoner.

For the NGO Fossil Free London, which organized the protest, the vast majority of the record profits recorded by companies in this sector last year “are directly reinvested in the expansion of fossil energy, not in the green energy they claim to intend to support”.

In this context, the president of the Saudi company Aramco, Amin Nasser, reinforced this Tuesday, at the beginning of the conference, that “new investments” in oil are needed to compensate for the decline in aging oil fields.

Activists also denounced the selection of Sultan al-Jaber, CEO of the UAE’s national oil company, as president of COP28, the annual United Nations climate conference, which will take place in Dubai from November 30 to December 12. .

Greta, in addition to her arrest this Tuesday, was fined in Sweden last week. She was found guilty of disobeying a police order and fined, following a protest she took part in in Sweden in July. This was the second time in three months that she had been convicted and fined for the same offence.