Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Tuesday was detained by police after joining hundreds of protesters to disrupt a major energy conference in London.
Thunberg was arrested outside the InterContinental London Park Lane hotel during the “Oily Money Out” protest organized by Fossil Free London and Greenpeace. The demonstration was held on the first day of the Energy Intelligence Forum.
“We need direct action to take back the power from the oil elite that has gathered here today behind closed doors. Their only plan is to profit at our expense,” Nuri Syed Corser, an organizer with Fossil Free London, said in a statement.
“Arrests like these will not deter us. Our right to protest is our own, it is not given to us by the Government,” they added.
The Energy Intelligence Forum, formerly known as the Oil and Money conference, is a three-day gathering of major oil and gas executives, politicians and civil society groups.
Among those scheduled to speak at the event this week include Occidental Petroleum CEO Vicki Hollub, Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser and Shell CEO Wael Sawan.
Addressing a news conference outside the hotel earlier in the day, Thunberg said, “We have no other option but to put our bodies outside this conference and to physically disrupt and, we have to do that every time. We have to continue showing them that they are not going to get away with this,” Thunberg said.
“This is only the beginning of this fight and we are going to stay and we are going to come back time and time again until we see real action,” she added. “We have to reclaim the power and that is what we are doing today. We have to kick oily money out.”
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