Those enjoying the festivities at Aberdeen’s Christmas village were met by Extinction Rebellion activists today as they protested against the Rosebank oil field.
The protestors set up shop outside the Marischal Square headquarters of the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) in the granite city holding “Stop Jackdaw” and “Stop Rosebank” banners.
Despite their surroundings, the activists were far from filled with festive cheer, choosing instead to criticise the NSTA’s “rubber stamping” of new oil and gas projects in the North Sea.
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Bridget, an Extinction Rebellion supporter from Dundee had travelled to Aberdeen to challenge the NSTA and hand out flyers to passers-by.
An NSTA spokesperson said: “We respect the right to peaceful protest, but regret any disruption caused to others.
“We will continue our work on security of supply, emissions reductions and carbon storage.”
Bridget added: “Rosebank is a huge new oil and gas field that is in the process of being licenced and world scientists agreed at COP last year and again this year, there should be no new oil and gas.
“The UN secretary this year said we need to take our foot off the accelerator and licencing new oil fields is completely against that.”
Bridget was joined by Jean, an Extinction Rebellion supporter who has participated in recent protests in Aberdeen for the group including actions outside Equinor’s north-east offices.
Jean said: “We are in the middle of a climate crisis and the NSTA just keeps rubber stamping the exploration of new oil fields.
“There’s a big system out there that needs to change and this is one dimension of it that we would like to see change and we want the government to commit to stronger criteria for when they decide to open the North Sea to more exploration.”
The action follows protests by Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil in the Granite City when Union Street’s Silver Fin building was splattered with orange paint and a local branch of Barclay’s was plastered with XR posters against the bank’s support of fossil fuels.