This is the moment today when yelling protestors barged into the offices of an energy firm before being pushed out of the building and tackled to the floor.
This morning, police were summoned to a property in Primrose Street, east London, after a group of 20 activists with banners in hand disrupted the annual general meeting of UK Oil & Gas (UKOG).
Fossil fuels must be eliminated, they cried out, warning their employers: “You are contributing to the climate disaster, you are destroying our world.” Our goal is to stop you.
Small oil and gas company UKOG has contentious plans to increase its drilling in the south of England.
Despite objections from the local council, who called it “the worst possible outcome” and warned that the drilling could cause “irreversible harm” to the environment, the government this month approved the company’s application for a permit to conduct oil drilling operations close to the Surrey village of Dunsfold.
Video shows a guy shoving a lady out the door and pulling another man out of the shareholder meeting while witnesses yelled that protestors were being “assaulted.”
HAPPENING NOW: I¿m at @UKOGlistedonAIM where activists have disrupted the fossil fuel company¿s annual shareholder meeting with singing, chanting and banners ¿ #DontDrillHorseHill @KwasiKwarteng you¿ll love this x pic.twitter.com/4pEGnBxU17
— Mia Watanabe | ¿¿¿¿ (@MiaHWatanabe) June 28, 2022
HAPPENING NOW: I¿m at @UKOGlistedonAIM where activists have disrupted the fossil fuel company¿s annual shareholder meeting with singing, chanting and banners ¿ #DontDrillHorseHill @KwasiKwarteng you¿ll love this x pic.twitter.com/4pEGnBxU17
— Mia Watanabe | ¿¿¿¿ (@MiaHWatanabe) June 28, 2022
Joanna Warrington, a spokeswoman for Fossil Free London, which organised today’s protest, said: ‘The science is very clear: we have to end coal, oil and gas to have a shot at a safe and liveable future… But apparently this government and UKOG didn’t get the memo.
‘The UK government should be investing in clean, home-grown renewable energy, and home insulation for our draughty homes. This would tackle the climate crisis and reduce people’s soaring energy bills.
‘But instead, this government gives corporations like UKOG free rein to impose their devastating oil and gas drilling sites.
‘These go against the wishes of local communities and disrupt the global life support systems we all depend on, recklessly endangering lives all over the world.
‘It’s time we held this company, and the whole destructive industry, to account. Their meetings and dirty business model of expansion at any human cost cannot carry on undisrupted.’
Chief Inspector Mitch Carr, from the City of London Police, said: ‘Officers attended protest activity this morning (Tuesday 28 June 2022) outside the Broadgate Tower, Primrose Street.
‘Officers engaged with the group to minimise disruption. The protesters have now dispersed.’