Extinction Rebellion: What does eco protest group have planned for London?

Campaign group will launch protests in the City of London this weekend

Extinction Rebellion is undertaking a two-week protest in London aimed at disrupting ‘business as usual’ in the capital as the climate crisis unfolds.

The Impossible Rebellion, which began on 23 August, is the activist group’s first major action since its Autumn Rebellion in September last year, which lasted for 10 days.

The primary aim of the protest is to demand that the government “stop all new fossil fuel investment immediately”. XR also hopes to “build pressure on the biggest financial institutions” in London it says are fuelling climate change.

On Wednesday, Extinction Rebellion gathered outside the Brazilian Embassy to protest the environmental destruction of the Amazon Rainforest and Brazil’s treatment of its indigenous people, before moving on to a second event at Piccadilly Circus exploring how women and FINT people can lead the fight against the climate crisis.

A number of arrests have been made over the last week (AFP via Getty Images)

At 12pm tomorrow the group will hit the City of London in a ‘Blood Money March’ to “highlight the institutions complicit in environmental racism and exploitation”.

A statement adds: “Along the route we will hear about the blood-soaked profiteering of our economic system: the banks that fund fossil fuel projects, especially in the Global South; the law firms that represent them; and the institutions that enable them to operate with impunity.”

On Saturday at 12.30pm protesters will gather at the world headquarters of Unilever on Victoria Embankment to protest animal testing, then march to the London HQ of global food corporation Cargill in the City of London, before heading to the offices of the Marine Stewardship Council, which Extinction Rebellion claims is complicit in “the brutal fishing industry that is killing the oceans”. The Animal Rights March event will finish at Smithfield Market.

At midday, there will also be a Global Majority-Led Crises Rally at Brixton Market.

On Sunday 29 August at 11.30am there will be a Carnival for Climate Justice at Ducketts Common in Harringay, North London.

On the Bank Holiday Sunday and Monday there is a science and culture event called Imagine The Impossible, which will take place in a secret West London location accessible only via a Telegram link.

Throughout next week the group promises continued occupations and “high impact actions” before an undisclosed finale.