Young climate strikers will carry out a major march against proposed new Scots oil fields today.
Activists will walk out of schools to demonstrate in Edinburgh against controversial developments planned at Rosebank and Jackdaw in the North Sea.
It’s part of a global action taking to the streets against the fossil fuels industry led by the Friday for Futures school strikes campaign.
Campaigners say UK Government plans for new drilling - as well as their controversial new coal mine in Cumbria - will destroy any “liveable future”.
Tory ministers are expected to decide whether to green-light Rosebank, 80 miles off Shetland, in the coming months. It’s the largest undeveloped oil field in the North Sea - and could yield more than 300 million barrels.
Shell’s Jackdaw gas field, about 150 miles east of Aberdeen, is currently facing a legal challenge from Greenpeace after UK regulators approved the development.
The International Energy Agency has called for no new fossil fuels projects if the world is to hit its net zero by 2050 goals and avert catastrophic climate change.
Adam Ballard, a 17-year-old activist with Fridays For Future, said: “The climate crisis and the cost of living crisis have the same root cause: the refusal to move away from fossil fuels.
“There is no energy shortage; there is a corrupt system that prioritises profit over people.
“While ordinary people are forced to choose between heating and eating, the people in power and fossil fuel CEOs continue to make unimaginable profits.”
Niamh Gill, 16, added: “The science clearly states there can be no more oil, gas or coal developments if we want a liveable future.
“The UK government is keeping Rosebank, Jackdaw and the newly proposed Whitehaven coal mine on the table, instead of securing and investing in a just transition to renewables for the workers and wider society, and climate justice for all."
Protesters will march from Middle Meadow Walk in the capital to the Scottish Parliament, where there will be a rally with speeches.
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