Extinction Rebellion protesters target bank
MEDITATION ON FUNDING OF FOSSIL FUELS
WOMEN from Leicester’s Extinction Rebellion group took their campaign to the doors of a city centre bank.
On Wednesday, the women held a silent meditation outside Barclays. Sitting at the entrance to the bank, the group held posters with an image of the earth burning.
Their aim was to raise awareness of the role banks play in the funding of fossil fuels.
After the UK committed to cutting carbon emissions under the Paris Climate Agreement in 2020, a report published by nongovernmental organisations revealed that the world’s biggest banks had provided billions of financing to fossil fuels companies.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report sounded a “code red for humanity” earlier this year.
Elaine Carter, one of the Leicester protesters said: “If that is not urgent, I don’t know what is.
“I think people have been seeing that we need to reduce climate change and they’re seeing the effects but they’re not always sure what’s fuelling it. “We all know that cars and planes are contributing but people aren’t always thinking about the banks.” Extinction Rebellion had coordinated protests around the country on the same day.
One protester from Leicester was said to have joined seven other women outside investment bank JP Morgan, in London, last week.
The action taken is said to have been inspired by the suffragette movement. “It took 50 years for suffragettes to win the vote using direct action but we don’t have 50 years,” Elaine said.
“We would have rather been at home but you see what we’re going into and you can’t ignore it.”
She said people are suffering from the impact of fossil fuel financing on a global scale.
Calling for “climate justice”, she said there are people elsewhere already facing a worse impact of climate change and said: “We all breathe the same air.”
We would have rather been at home but you see what we’re going into and you can’t ignore it
Elaine Carter