27 February 2024 , 10:16
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Extinction Rebellion activists have stormed the 'Walkie Talkie' building in London as part of a new wave of protests.
Several members of environmental group "occupied" the foyer of the multi-storey building on Tuesday, with others carrying out similar action in nearby offices.
A number of arrests have been made, police said, including one person held on suspicion of breach of bail conditions. City of London police have now issued a Section 11 order, which gives officers the power to search for items which may be used with believed criminal intent, including lock on devices.
The new demonstration is targeted at insurance bosses from Tokio Marine Kiln, who they claim are insuring fossil fuel companies.
Images show protesters outside the building with a large banner, with one holding an orange flare.
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Flares were held aloft outside the London landmarkA number of other offices in the City of London have also been targeted this morning, according to the group, including those belonging to AIG, Probitas, Travelers Europe and Talbot. Police officers were seen standing next to the protesters at the Walkie Talkie and speaking with them.
Protesters later moved on the offices of Zurich Insurance, which are located nearby. A campaigner said the firm had "refused to meet our demands to stop enabling fossil fuels, respect human rights & support a just transition at talks on Friday."
Specific "carbon bomb" projects have been raised by the protesters, including the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline and the West Cumbria coal mine. It is claimed these "will cause climate breakdown and a future of killer storms and heatwaves, floods, famine and war."
XR protester Liz Pendleton said: "We are here to engage constructively with insurance bosses about their decision to insure the fossil fuel crooks wrecking the climate. We're staying until they come down and talk to us.
The new demonstrations are targeted at insurance firms"The insurance industry has a unique opportunity to immediately halt all the 'carbon bomb' projects like the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline and the West Cumbria coal mine that will cause climate breakdown and a future of killer storms and heatwaves, floods, famine and war.
"It's very simple. No insurance equals no drilling. No insurance equals no digging. So these companies have a superpower that could give us all a fighting chance of a liveable future." The City of London Police have been approached for comment.
A letter sent by Extinction Rebellion yesterday to CEOs, senior underwriters, and chief actuaries at more than 40 insurance firms in the City of London read: "We’re writing to you from the heart to offer you and your business the opportunity to be the climate heroes that millions of us desperately need you to be in these times of terrifying and rapidly accelerating crisis.
"You and your colleagues possess an amazing and quite unique superpower. You could simply refuse to underwrite new and existing oil, gas and coal projects and infrastructure – and stop the global fossil fuel industry that is causing the climate crisis in its tracks.
"Immediately, companies such as Total and Adani would be left to face the full financial risk of ‘carbon bomb’ projects including the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) and the West Cumbria coal mine – and thus be unable to push ahead with them.
"At a stroke, you would give all of us a fighting chance of avoiding global temperature rises that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres predict will plunge us into a future of deadly droughts, famines, killer storms and heatwaves, war and societal collapse."
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