Greta Thunberg has pleaded not guilty at a court in London on Wednesday morning after being charged with a public order offence at a London protest.
The 20-year-old was arrested near the InterContinental Hotel in Mayfair on October 17 whilst protesting against the Energy Intelligence Forum taking place inside.
She appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court accused of breaching Section 14 of the Public Order Act 1986, namely failing to leave the highway and continue the protest on the pavement.
Thunberg was bailed after being charged and subsequently joined other climate protests in London organised by Fossil Free London – outside JP Morgan in Canary Wharf on October 19, and outside London’s Guildhall on Monday.
The first two protests were in relation to the continued use of fossil fuels by major oil and gas companies, while the latest focused on the Government’s approval of drilling at the Rosebank oil field.
She appeared alongside 10 other activists who are all charged with the same offence.
Greenpeace and Fossil Free London activists were expected to demonstrate outside the court before the hearing.
Before she was detained at the Mayfair protest, Thunberg told journalists outside the hotel: “The world is drowning in fossil fuels. Our hopes and dreams and lives are being washed away by a flood of greenwashing and lies.
“It has been clear for decades that the fossil fuel industries were well aware of the consequences of their business models, and yet they have done nothing.
“The opposite – they have actively delayed, distracted and denied the causes of the climate crisis and spread doubts about their own engagement in it.”
Thunberg, from Stockholm, Sweden, has been an active environmental campaigner since the age of 15 and was fined by a Swedish court in July for stopping traffic during an environmental protest at an oil facility.
