CLIMATE protesters hung a huge banner on the Vienna venue of the European Gas Conference earlier today to highlight the fossil fuel industry’s plans to “future-proof gas” in the face of climate disaster.

Activists from Greenpeace hoisted the six-by-eight-metre banner, reading: “End fossil crimes,” on the facade of the Marriott Hotel in the Austrian capital, calling for oil and gas companies to stop fuelling climate change and to be held accountable for their actions in this regard. 

The Greenpeace action formed part of a wider campaign of protest against the conference by environmental activists and groups. 

Greenpeace’s Fossil Free Revolution campaign head Lisa Goldner said: “The fossil fuel industry holds meetings behind closed doors to strike dirty deals.”

Meanwhile, Greenpeace Netherlands published a new report titled The Fossil Fuel Crime File: Proven Crimes and Credible Allegations, which offers a sample of criminal, civil and administrative offences committed by the fossil fuel industry, as well as credible allegations against them, from 1989 to the present day. 

Ms Goldner said: “Criminality is baked into the DNA of the fossil fuel industry. We want this industry to stop new fossil fuel projects, to stop breaking the law and to pay for its crimes against people and the planet.”