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Six protestors arrested as insurer’s office is chalk-sprayed, the famous Gherkin building is occupied and insurance CEOs are branded climate criminals by a video van tour of the City of London as day two of Extinction Rebellion’s Insure Our Survival week hits the streets.

Six Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists were arrested this afternoon (Tuesday) as the offices of “one of the most hypocritical insurers in the UK” was covered with fly posters and chalk spray paint to highlight the firm’s leading role in insuring fossil fuel crooks to set the planet on fire.

The offices of giant insurance brokers WTW in Lime Street in the City of London were targeted because their analysts co-authored a recent report that warned climate crisis-driven floods and extreme weather have a high likelihood of causing food shortages and social unrest in the UK. Meanwhile, the firm makes millions from helping fossil fuel crooks to get insurance to keep digging and drilling for the oil, gas and coal causing the climate emergency.

An Insure Our Survival spokesperson said: “WTW were targeted because they may be one of the most hypocritical insurers in the UK. Shockingly, their experts publicly state that the climate crisis could cause food shortages and social unrest – and yet they keep sorting the fossil fuel companies with insurance to make the crisis worse and more likely to cost billions of lives.”

A dramatic wave of protest and non-violent direct action swept the City as XR’s Insure Our Survival campaign staged a second day of actions demanding that insurers stop insuring all the new oil, gas and coal projects that will make the climate emergency worse, faster.

One of London’s most iconic and recognisable buildings, the Gherkin, was occupied this morning as three activists in business suits entered the lobby of the glass and steel tower that is the HQ of the global reinsurance company SwissRe who are heavily involved in the dirty business of insuring climate breakdown. 

They unfurled banners reading Insure Our Survival and Stop EACOP, a reference to the planet-wrecking ‘carbon bomb’ East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline that insurance would make possible.

Outside a ‘soft blockade’ of 20 XR activists formed a ring on the pavement in front of the main entrance. They greeted insurance workers with placards warning about UK and global food shortages and price spikes, the threat to UK farming [1], and the wave of uninsurable homes [2] as a result of floods caused by the oil, gas and coal projects their business is insuring.

To make the message even more graphic, a semi-circle of protesters held up huge photographic images of people in the UK and across the world amidst the wreckage of their homes and lives after climate crisis-driven extreme weather and flooding. The globally-renowned artist and photographer Gideon Mendel, who took the pictures, was in attendance, capturing the scenes on camera and supporting the protesters.

Throughout the day, an advertising van playing videos depicting the CEOs of leading UK-based insurers as climate criminals, toured the City of London.

Hundreds of activists marched through the streets of the City behind a banner demanding “STOP INSURING HUNGER”. They were led by a wheelbarrow holding a giant potato to satirically symbolise the coming flood-driven breakdown of the UK’s food and farming system and the price and hunger crisis that will follow. 

In a theatrical illustration of the food shortages to come unless the fossil fuel industry is stopped, dozens of activists queued with empty bowls in front of the giant potato close to the Lloyds of London – only to be given a single pea each.

Protestors from the Christian Climate Action staged a picket outside of the offices of Chubb in Fenchurch Street and later this afternoon, small children in ghost costumes symbolising the young lives being lost to climate crisis-driven famine will visit insurance offices in the City with their parents from XR Families.

Insure Our Survival spokesperson Steve Tooze said: “On Monday we told the world about the floods that are happening everywhere because insurers are continuing to underwrite the expansion of the fossil fuel industry. Today, we spelled out the horrific realities of those floods for ordinary people here and in the Global South.

“Famine is already rife in countries in Africa, Asia and South and Central America due to floods and extreme weather caused by the climate crisis. It’s only a matter of time before food shortages and hunger hit the UK too. The floods are also leaving towns, homes, businesses and lives wrecked.

“We’re making it clear to insurers that they have the power to stop us going hungry and having our homes flooded and made uninsurable. They can make it impossible for fossil fuel bosses to keep drilling and digging by pulling the plug on the insurance that covers their huge financial losses if things go wrong. 

“Unless insurers meet our demand to stop insuring new oil and gas, we will keep targeting them with mass non-violent direct action to damage their reputations with the public and business community and hit their share price.”

Notes to Editor

[1] Harvest in England the second worst on record because of wet weather, ECIU/UK govt: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/10/harvest-in-england-the-second-worst-on-record-because-of-wet-weather

Experts warn of risk of civil unrest in UK due to food shortages, 58 UK food experts: https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2023/research/risk-civil-unrest-food-shortages/

Food insecurity in Latin America, World Meteorological Organisation, May 2024 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/08/disease-hunger-soar-latin-america-floods-drought-study

[2] UK homes becoming uninsurable, The Council of Estate Management: https://www.yourmoney.com/news/houses-floodplains-uninsurable/

About Extinction Rebellion

Extinction Rebellion (XR) is a decentralised, international and politically non-partisan movement using nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience to persuade governments to act justly on the Climate and Ecological Emergency.

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Time has almost entirely run out to address the climate and ecological crisis which is upon us, including the sixth mass species extinction, global pollution, and increasingly rapid climate change. If urgent and radical action isn’t taken, we’re heading towards 4˚C warming, leading to societal collapse and mass loss of life. The younger generation, racially marginalised communities and the Global South are on the frontline. No-one will escape the devastating impacts.