Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was detained by British police on Tuesday in central London while participating in a protest outside a major oil and gas conference. The demonstration was called “Oily Money Out” and organized by pressure groups Fossil Free London and Greenpeace, and aimed to accuse fossil fuel companies of intentionally slowing the global energy transition to renewables to make more profit.
Greta Thunberg detained, wearing a protest badge, was standing calmly with hundreds of other protesters blocking all entrances to the InterContinental London Park Lane hotel. As two police officers spoke to her, she told the media that spineless politicians were making deals and compromises with lobbyists from the destructive fossil fuel industry behind closed doors.
After her release on bail, Thunberg participated in another demonstration with hundreds of protesters the following day. She is one of five people, aged 19 to 59, who will stand trial at Westminster Magistrates Court under the Public Order Act for allegedly failing to move when asked to by police. They have all pleaded not guilty. If charged and convicted, the maximum fine for the five protesters would be 2,500 pounds ($3,177 or €2,932).
Greenpeace and other environmental protesters have expressed solidarity with the accused and plan to demonstrate outside the court during the two-day trial.
“The world is drowning in fossil fuels. Our hopes and dreams and lives are being washed away by a flood of greenwashing and lies,” Thunberg said. “It has been clear for decades that the fossil fuel industries were well aware of the consequences of their business models, and yet they have done nothing.”
“We cannot let this continue. The elite of the oil and money conference. They have no intention of transition,” she said.
During the conference, environment groups plan to continue protesting. On Tuesday, Greenpeace activists scaled the hotel building to display a banner saying “make big oil pay.”