The Just Stop Oil group has staged multiple protests so far this year that have resulted in arrests, with more than 70 activists facing criminal charges.
Two activists from the group recently scaled the Queen Elizabeth II bridge at the Dartford Crossing to disrupt traffic, leading police to close the bridge as the chaos continued.
This protest, alongside the recent protest at the National Gallery - which saw activists throw tomato soup over Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' painting - is a part of a longer plan that will attempt to cause disruption within London for the whole of October, according to Just Stop Oil.
But why are Just Stop Oil protesting?
Here's everything you need to know.
What is Just Stop Oil?
According to its website, Just Stop Oil is a "coalition of groups working together to ensure that the government commits to ending all new licences and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK".
The organisation was founded in April 2022 with the group staging numerous protests since with organisers from Insulate Britain and Extinction Rebellion at the helm.
Just Stop Oil is mostly funded from Climate Emergency Fund but also receives donations from the public and other environmental groups.
Why are Just Stop Oil protesting?
The group is demanding “that the UK government makes a statement that it will immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development, and production of fossil fuels in the UK”.
The organisations website adds: “Allowing the extraction of new oil and gas resources in the UK is an obscene and genocidal policy that will kill our children and condemn humanity to oblivion. It just has to stop.
“If we continue down our current path, it will destroy families and communities. We will face starvation and the slaughter of billions of the poor – and the utter betrayal of our children and their future.
“Does our government get this? They are actively enabling the fossil-fuel industry through obscene subsidies and tax breaks for new fossil-fuel extraction.
“They are wasting billions supporting unicorn technologies, such as carbon capture and storage projects, which provide a fig leaf for business-as-usual to continue. There has been no rapid and sweeping social change, no widespread adoption of low-carbon technology, and no war-style mobilisation.
“The choice: rapid transition to a low-energy and low-carbon world, or social collapse. We can do it now, in an orderly manner – creating millions of proper skilled jobs and protecting the rights of workers in sunset industries – or we wait for the unavoidable collapse.”
What has happened to the activists from the National Gallery protest?
On Friday October 14, two activists from Just Stop Oil threw tomato soup over Van Gogh's legendary Sunflowers painting and glued their hands to the gallery's walls.
The incident involving the painting, which is covered by glass and worth around £72.5m, took place on the 14th day of Just Stop Oil's current campaign, and the footage went viral on social media.
In a statement, Just Stop Oil said it is “calling for the Government to commit to immediately halt new oil and gas licenses in the UK and for the directors, employees, and members of art institutions to join the Just Stop Oil coalition in peaceful civil resistance”.
According to the BBC, the two activists named Anna Holland, 20, from Newcastle, and Phoebe Plummer, 21, from Lambeth, south-west London, pleaded not guilty when they appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Saturday.
The two activists spoke only to confirm their names, dates of birth, addresses and to enter their pleas to charges of criminal damage to the value of less than £5,000.
They were later released on bail on the condition they do not enter galleries or museums and do not have paint or adhesive substances in a public place.
READ NEXT:
