Airports, Wall Street and Olympics in crosshairs of climate activists

PARIS: Climate activists in the United States and Europe are planning protests at airports, banks and the Olympic Games in a summer of stunts they have defended as necessary even if their tactics differ.

From blocking highways to spray painting jets and the megaliths at Stonehenge and throwing food at artworks, some climate activists have turned to more provocative tactics since the Covid-19 pandemic put an abrupt end to the mass marches spurred by Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement.

The last 12 months have been the hottest ever recorded and with swathes of the world blanketed in extreme heat, campaigners have heavy-polluting corporations and business interests in their sights.

A22 Network, an alliance of activist groups committed to non-violent protest, said it was planning to disrupt airports in eight countries over the northern hemisphere summer.

Protests are planned in the UK, Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, US, Scotland and Norway, UK-based activists from the alliance said. Global aviation is responsible for around 2.5 per cent of global carbon emissions, more than the annual carbon footprint of Brazil and France combined.

“Our resistance will put the spotlight on the heaviest users of fossil fuels and call everyone into action with us,” Just Stop Oil, one of the groups that embraced more controversial forms of protests, said in a statement.

UK police said they pre-emptively arrested 27 supporters from Just Stop Oil before the protest had even begun under laws that make it illegal to conspire to disrupt national infrastructure.

But Gabriella Ditton, a spokesperson for the group, said the arrests hadn’t deterred them. “While we face the massive crisis that we are in, we can’t stop,” she said.

They are demanding governments sign the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, which seeks a halt to the expansion of fossil fuels and the phasing out of coal, oil and gas.

‘More visible, less disruptive’

In the US, activists have been targeting Wall Street and barricading the entrances to major banks and firms that finance, insure and invest in fossil fuel companies.

Organisers of “The Summer of Heat” campaign have vowed “joyful, relentless non-violent direct action to end fossil fuel financing” over the coming months.

Notably in Europe, Extinction Rebellion (XR), once notorious for shutting down bridges over the Thames River in London, have shifted their main focus from mass civil disobedience to building an inclusive grassroots movement.

This summer, they are calling on governments in the UK and France to establish citizen assemblies on climate and nature, while picketing the companies insuring the fossil fuel industry.

Gail Bradbrook, XR’s co-founder, said their new-look approach to climate activism strived “to reach more mainstream folks” and do “the deeper work of local organising”.

They are, however, planning “mass occupations” over the summer — including one at the start of the Olympic Games opening in Paris on 26 July. Organisers in France say this could last several days but would be “more visible than disruptive”, but have not offered further planning details.

Header image: Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg (C) is carried away by police as she blocks the entrance to the A12 with protesters from Extinction Rebellion in The Hague on July 6. — AFP

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2024