A video released by the environmental group showed a group of people dressed in bright red coveralls, helmets and harnesses and carrying ladders, climbing onto the roof of the Yorkshire home. Then they slowly unfurled long sheets of black cloth on the front of the house and a yellow sign on the roof reading “No New Oil.”
The prime minister was not at the property because he is on vacation with his family in California. North Yorkshire Police said officers were at the scene.
Sunak announced on Monday that Britain will grant hundreds of new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea to achieve energy independence. The initiative was widely criticized by environmental groups who accused the government of backtracking on its promise to achieve emissions neutrality by 2050.
As four Greenpeace activists stood on the roof of the president’s country house, two others stood on the front lawn holding a banner reading “Rishi Sunak — Oil Profits or Our Future?”
“We desperately need our prime minister to be a climate leader, not a climate arsonist,” said Philip Evans of Greenpeace. “Just as fires and floods ravage homes and lives around the world, Sunak is committing to a massive expansion of oil and gas drilling.”
United Nations scientists and environmental groups have called on world leaders to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels after a summer of record temperatures, droughts and floods linked to climate change. The burning of oil and gas for driving, factories and electricity generation release huge amounts of carbon dioxide, the main cause of climate change.
A statement from Sunak’s office defended the prime minister’s climate policy.
“We make no apologies for taking the right approach to ensuring our energy security, using the resources we have here to never again depend on aggressors like (Russian President Vladimir) Putin for our energy,” the statement said.
The protest is one of dozens of high-profile demonstrations organized in the country and across Europe by groups that have stormed sporting events, caused massive traffic jams and carried out shock initiatives to draw attention to the climate crisis and try to stop the production of fossil fuels.
FOUNTAIN: Associated Press
