SCOTTISH activists from Just Stop Oil targeted a series of luxury car dealerships in London as they ramped up action calling for an end to fossil fuels.
At 8.30 am on Wednesday morning, two Scots sprayed orange paint from a fire extinguisher over the premises of Bugatti, Bentley and Ferrari dealerships in the city centre.
And, later that day another Scottish activist took part in a roadblock in Picadilly.
Carmen Lean, 28, and Emma Brown, 31, both from Glasgow, said that their protest was a demand to the UK Government to stop pushing through oil licenses.
Following former Prime Minister Liz Truss appointing Jacob Rees-Mogg as Energy Secretary, a licensing round for over 100 new developments in the North Sea was opened, to the fury of environmental campaigners.
The United Nations, campaign groups, and scientists have all warned that to keep global warming below 1.5C there must be no further exploration for oil and gas.
Lean, an architecture student, said after the protest: “We pay exorbitant bills for oil and gas but it’s nothing compared to the price our kids will pay for it.
“New oil and gas is a death sentence for people all around the world. You can throw us in prison but it won’t stop our outrage at this government throwing millions of people under the bus. We’re not asking for no new oil, we’re demanding it.
“This government is using the crisis to push through more austerity on one hand and new oil licences on the other. Both are death sentences.
“If this government cared about people, they would be insulating homes, investing in affordable public transport and massively scaling up renewables.”
Brown added: “We have come down from Scotland to demand this toxic government in Westminster do another U-turn. This time on our broken energy system.
“Get your hands off our North Sea Oil and rapidly upscale the renewable energies that will prevent catastrophic climate breakdown and reduce our bills.
“This is the immediate action we need to help the cost of living and the climate crisis. Not more oil for billionaires to profit from.”
At midday on Wednesday, around 16 campaigners from the group walked onto Piccadilly near Green Park Tube station and disrupted traffic by sitting in the road with banners. Some supporters glued themselves onto the tarmac.
Dr Louis Keal, 32, a physicist from Edinburgh said: “The public sees the critical need for immediate downscaling of fossil fuels, so do the UN, the International Energy Agency, and countless businesses and scientific institutions.
“But the dangerous radicals in government are determined to continue making fossil fuel companies richer at the expense of the rest of us. We have no choice but to resist, to put our bodies on the line.
“We are ordinary people who have run out of options.”
Just Stop Oil confirmed the action was against the UK Government’s plans to license over 100 new oil and gas projects by 2025, as well as their failure to help households struggling with skyrocketing energy bills.
The Tory government's so-called energy price guarantee was initially supposed to last for two years, but was cut by new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and will now end after six months.
The campaign group says that in the three weeks of “continuous civil resistance” police have made 585 arrests.
Since the campaign began on April 1, Just Stop Oil supporters have been arrested 1900 times, with seven supporters currently in prison, they added.
