A Cabinet minister on Monday slammed environmental activists who have staged protests in London and blocked oil terminals – accusing them of seeking “to cause havoc with other people’s lives”.
Environment Secretary George Eustice also argued that “extreme protests” are not needed as ending the world’s dependency on fossil fuels was already part of the “mainstream agenda”.
He spoke out after Extinction Rebellion climate activists staged sit-down protests in central London on Sunday, for a second day, with dozens arrested after they blocked two bridges to demand an end to the fossil fuel economy.
Activists from the group, also known as XR, and Just Stop Oil have also been blocking access to oil terminals for ten days, demanding that the Government stops new oil and gas projects.
They disrupted supplies from three oil terminals in Warwickshire, Hertfordshire and Essex on Sunday, Just Stop Oil said.
Mr Eustice told LBC Radio: “A right to protest is important but not if it’s disrupting other people’s lives.
“That’s a problem with a lot of these protests, they are not just making a point and staging a protest, they are also trying to cause havoc with other people’s lives. That’s wrong.”
He stressed new laws were being brought in to target such protests, for example where people take actions such as gluing themselves to motorways.
“It’s not acceptable,” he emphasised.
He also added: “We all recognise that we need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels - not just to deal with big challenges like climate change but also to deal with the current problem we see now which is an over-reliance on those few remaining countries in the world that have oil and gas reserves.
“So we are all moving in the right direction, this is a mainstream agenda, people don’t really need to do such extreme protests do make their point heard.”
