UK activist group Just Stop Oil holds its last climate protest

Just Stop Oil, a British environmental activist group, staged its final demonstration in London to end three years of obscene climate protest stunts that had turned their attention away from civil disobedience.

Several hundred supporters walked peacefully from the UK capital’s parliament to Shell’s oil and gas headquarters, where they removed their well-known high-vis orange vests.

One of the most well-known protest organizations in the United Kingdom was the one that primarily fought for the country to end oil and gas extraction by 2030.

The organization announced in March that it would stop its attention-grabbing protests, claiming that it had succeeded in achieving its initial goal, which was to stop the UK from approving new oil and gas projects.

Since Just Stop Oil was founded in 2022, more than 3, 000 protesters have been detained, including 58-year-old co-founder Roger Hallam, among whom 11 are currently incarcerated. In May, five more are scheduled to be sentenced.

The group’s activists used tomato soup to paint Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers painting and sprinkled Stonehenge, a landmark, with orange paint powder, as well.

Additionally, they slowed down sporting and entertainment events like Wimbledon tennis matches.

Politicians, police, and some sections of the public have all condemned the actions over the years.

The group, however, triumphed as a result of the UK Labour government’s decision to halt new North Sea oil and gas exploration licenses.

However, Just Stop Oil has been taken away from by Labour. Keir Starmer, the prime minister, criticized the organization’s actions and warned that protesters should be subject to the law’s full force.

The protest group’s spokesperson Mel Carrington claimed that despite its efforts to “very effectively get press attention,” Donald Trump’s re-election as president of the United States had made their work more challenging.

She told the AFP news agency, “The external environment has changed and the repression makes it more difficult to mobilize.”

Just Stop Oil has been wary about its future plans, but it has stated that it will “continue to speak out for our political prisoners, call out the UK’s oppressive anti-protest laws, and continue to fight the truth in the courts.”