Four artworks were carried through central London to Trafalgar Square, one of which included a painting of Chris Kaba, the unarmed black man who was shot and killed by the Met Police in September, with the slogan “Climate justice is racial justice.”
Specifically, the Climate Reparations Bloc is targeting Lloyd’s of London marketplace insurers and the Standard Chartered bank to stop the controversial East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) and Rosebank oilfield, which are currently awaiting UK government approval.
Once built, the EACOP will be the world’s longest heated oil pipeline at almost 1,445 kilometres. Its construction would have tragic consequences for local communities, wildlife and the entire planet, the activists claim, starting with the oil extraction and transportation that would generate over 34 million metric tonnes of carbon emissions annually at peak production. Brokerage giant Marsh McLennan bid for and won the contract to find insurers for the EACOP in March.
Meanwhile, Rosebank is the biggest undeveloped oil and gas field in the North Sea, with 90% of its reserves being oil that is likely to be exported once given a thumbs up for development. According to the World Bank, burning Rosebank’s oil and gas would create more CO2 than the combined emissions of 700 million people in 28 low-income countries.
As COP27 comes to a close on November 18, the Climate Reparations Bloc is also demanding climate reparations for communities on a global scale.
“We demand climate reparations for working-class communities around the world and in the UK. From Pakistan to the Amazon, people in the Global South are suffering the most from the climate crisis,” said Tatiana Garavito, a member of the Climate Reparations Bloc. “Here in the UK, we’re facing a cost-of-living crisis that means families are choosing between eating and heating. The climate crisis and the cost-of-living crisis are symptoms of the same problem: capitalist greed exploiting people and the planet.”
