London: The two environmentalists stormed a Wimbledon court on Wednesday to demand the UK government stop all new licences and consents for oil, gas and coal.
The environmentalists are from the group “Just Stop Oil” who are calling on the UK government to stop licensing all new oil, gas and coal projects.
Both of them have been arrested at Wimbledon, after running onto one of the courts and disrupting a match by throwing orange confetti.
“We’ve just had the hottest June on record, breaking the previous record by nearly a whole degree,” the 68 year-old says in a press release from Just Stop Oil.
“We don’t need Hawk-eye to see that our government issuing over 100 new fossil fuel licences is a very bad line-call.”
The Wimbledon Championships are currently under fire after signing a sponsorship deal with Barclays Bank, which has been accused of using the tournament as a means of greenwashing its reputation.
Barclays gave $38 billion to oil and gas companies, including Exxon Mobil, Shell and TotalEnergies, in the last two years.
Since the Paris Agreement came into effect in 2016 binding countries to limit global heating the world’s 60 largest banks have spent a staggering €4.9 trillion on fossil fuels.
“Following an incident on Court 18, two individuals have been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass and criminal damage and these individuals have now been removed from the grounds,” the All England Club said in a statement.
The activists ran onto the court during a match between semi finalist Gregor Dimitrov of Bulgaria and Sho Shimabukuro of Japan.
