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ENVIRONMENTAL activists targeted fossil fuel infrastructure across the country today, blockading Shell’s Aberdeen office and staging a die-in at Siemens’s HQ in London.
Campaigners from Extinction Rebellion shut off the Scottish headquarters of the oil giant in the early hours of the morning, ahead of a day-long action.
The latest stunt is part of a fortnight of action against the fossil-fuel industry by the Scottish group.
Activists secured the entrances with lock-on equipment and a big purple boat, with the aim of shutting the building down and holding Shell to account for its role in the climate crisis.
The ship, which bears the slogan The Future You Fear Is Already Here, intended as a reminder to the industry that catastrophic climate change is already underway across the planet.
One of the protesters, who gave his name as Paul from Aberdeenshire, said companies such as Shell must be stopped.
He said: "If the whole world reaches zero carbon emissions by 2030, we only have a 75 per cent chance of staying below 2°C.
The @redrebelbrigade in attendance at our blockade of @Shell_UKLtd HQ in Aberdeen, now proceeding through the city centre. #RigRebellion2 #ShellMustFall pic.twitter.com/0NdpFhPOqG
— Extinction Rebellion Scotland (@ScotlandXr) January 16, 2020
"These are terrible odds; and by committing to continued production decades into the future, Shell is literally destroying our future.
"The more successful fossil-fuel companies like Shell are, the worse our future is going to be. We have to stop them carrying on as if their product does no harm."
The action is part of Rig Rebellion 2.0, which has seen Shell petrol stations and an oil rig set for the North Sea also targeted by XR Scotland.
A Shell spokesperson said: “The heightened awareness of climate change that we have seen over recent months is a good thing.
“As a company, we agree that urgent action is needed. What will really accelerate change is effective policy, investment in technology innovation and deployment, and changing customer behaviour.
“As we move to a lower-carbon future, we are committed to playing our part, by addressing our own emissions and helping customers to reduce theirs — because we all have a role to play.”
An energy industry spokesperson however accused Extinction Rebellion of promoting "conspiracy theories" around the climate emergency.
Extinction Rebellion Scotland are blocking the entrances to the @Shell_UKLtd offices in Aberdeen.
Because Shell is killing us while making a killing, holding our economy to ransom and lobbying against alternatives.#RigRebellion2 pic.twitter.com/zdJcOibNro
— Extinction Rebellion Scotland (@ScotlandXr) January 16, 2020
In London, XR activists turned Siemans’s HQ into a “crime scene” in protest against the German conglomerate's recent Adani coal-mine deal.
At around 9am protesters set up a mock police cordon by the building’s entrance, while a banner was dropped from a window reading “climate change kills children.”
The protest follows Siemens’s decision on Monday to fulfil its contractual obligations to the Adani mine project in Australia, despite pressure from environmental groups to scrap the deal.
XR says the development has the potential to produce 705 million tonnes of CO2 each year — about 1.3 times Australia’s total current emissions.
Activist Lorna Greenwood said: “If Siemens supports the Adani coal mine it’ll be a stain on their history forever.
“After the hell on Earth that we’re witnessing in Australia, there are no acceptable excuses or justifications for furthering climate and ecological disaster.”
