Greta Thunberg has taken part in climate protests in London for the second time this week, joining activists outside JP Morgan's headquarters in Canary Wharf on Thursday morning. The Swedish campaigner appeared undeterred after being arrested and charged with a public order offence following a separate demonstration on Tuesday.
Protesters from Fossil Free London sat outside the JP Morgan building on Bank Street, chanting slogans such as “Change your diet, save the climate – eat the rich” as financial workers passed by. They handed out fake £10 notes from the “bank of climate chaos” that read: “I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of loss and damage.”
A spokesperson for Fossil Free London said: “We are here at the entrance to JP Morgan because they are, in the last seven years since the last Paris agreement, the worst financier of fossil fuels. They poured $434bn into fossil fuel financing.” The group called for the bank to use its profits to pay for loss and damage caused by climate change.
Canary Wharf’s private security staff directed JP Morgan employees to alternative entrances. Police arrived at about 9am but did not immediately begin making arrests. Thunberg declined to comment but joined in chants including “Profits rise and we get poor, climate crisis is class war” and “Oily, oily money. Out, out, out.”
Meanwhile, doctors and healthcare workers from Extinction Rebellion staged a “die-in” outside the InterContinental Park Lane, venue for the Energy Intelligence Forum. Fourteen people lay shrouded in the road, mimicking casualties, while others mimed tending to them. The group later planned to hand a letter to JP Morgan’s head of sustainability, warning that future society may judge fossil fuel investments as immoral.
A JP Morgan spokesperson said: “We provide financing all across the energy sector: supporting energy security, helping clients accelerate their low carbon transitions and increasing clean energy financing with a target of $1tn for green initiatives by 2030.”
