Extinction Rebellion to blockade UK oil refineries to ‘take back the power from war mongers’

Exclusive: ‘Working for decarbonisation is working for peace’, group says ahead of wave of action in April

‘We will come out in numbers until the government agrees to our new, immediate demand: to stop the fossil fuel economy’, the group says (PA)

Extinction Rebellion has announced a wave of action targeting the UK’s oil refineries as part of a broader protest beginning in April.

The group said it was aiming to create “enough disruption to force the UK government to commit to Extinction Rebellion’s immediate demand: to stop the fossil fuel economy”.

The announcement follows the dire warnings from the United Nations’ IPCC report on the worsening climate crisis and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has prompted a new drive for renewables.

Extinction Rebellion co-founder Clare Farrell told The Independent: “Working for decarbonisation is working for peace, and if we decarbonise our economies we take the power away from war-mongers.”

The group said it was working to pull together with other protest organisations to disrupt the fossil fuel industry to the extent that it could “create a tipping point moment”. Just Stop Oil is among the organisations which will work with Extinction Rebellion to blockade UK refineries.

Ms Farrell said: “Oil refineries are symbolic of continued extraction and profit for a small group of very wealthy companies at the expense of everyone else. We burn them, pollute our cities, poison ourselves and our children whilst committing to climate breakdown.

“We face an ongoing cost of living crisis with fossil fuel companies making record breaking profits. We have failed to insulate homes or make progress on energy efficiency here in the UK and experts are expecting an especially difficult winter later this year unless bold effort is made in the name of protecting the vulnerable and the poor.”

Extinction Rebellion has already announced what could be its biggest series of demonstrations yet in London, starting on 9 April and potentially lasting weeks, with the group aiming to rally thousands of activists to undertake a large-scale civil disobedience campaign.

The action at oil refineries will coincide with the launch of the London demonstrations.

Tim Crosland of charity Plan B, which supports legal action to tackle the climate crisis, said: “Our addiction to fossil fuels must end immediately if there’s to be any hope left of tackling the climate crisis. There can be no denying this anymore. Last week’s devastating IPCC report is just the latest in a series of increasingly desperate warnings from scientists. We know what is happening, we know what needs to be done and we know those in power are failing us.

“The Ukraine conflict and the climate crisis have the same underlying cause: the imperialist pursuit of land and resources for profit, concentrating power in the hands of toxic individuals and corporations. By decarbonising our economies we can take power back from war mongers and change course, averting climate breakdown and collapse. But it must happen now, before governments use the conflict as an excuse to get off Russian oil and gas, only to begin drilling closer to home.”

Extinction Rebellion has also urged the government to take the action required to slash the UK’s emissions, and warned against any influence Nigel Farage may have after he called for a referendum on the UK’s net zero plans.

The group has sent a letter to Boris Johnson stating their April plans. The letter says: “Every day the UK government fails to act makes our common future more bleak, our prospects more terrifying. And you know this. You have understood implicitly the path our planet is on since Sir Patrick Vallance, government chief scientific adviser presented the facts to you on 28 January 2020.”

It added: “So, either you do what the entire scientific community and the International Energy Agency (IEA) is telling us we need to do to save ourselves and stop all fossil fuel investments immediately, or in April we are going to do what you refuse to do. We’re going to stop the UK oil flow and bring the country with us.”

Ms Farrell said: “The government’s net zero commitments are being called into question, with some politicians and think tanks calling for a referendum on net zero, claiming that British people ‘can’t afford’ to address climate change. But the truth is the opposite, the UK can afford to change and we can’t afford not to.”

Alanna Byrne of Extinction Rebellion warned that the world is yet to see the impacts of the invasion of Ukraine on agriculture and food supply chains. The country is one of the world’s biggest exporters of wheat.

She said: “The climate and ecological crisis is already starving people. More than half those who live in food insecurity are in countries affected by conflict, because conflict and war can be both the cause and the effect of food shortages.

“Our leaders are beholden to these global networks and as the climate crisis deepens and resources become more scarce, we will only see further conflict as tensions rise.

“To rapidly decarbonise is to work towards a more peaceful world, free of the shackles of power-hungry war mongers.”