Press
This is the official source for Extinction Rebellion UK news,
press releases, updates, images & videos.
Email: press@extinctionrebellion.uk
Phone: +44(0)7756136396
Rowan Williams, Emma Thompson, Ben Okri, Brian Eno, Es Devlin, Sir David King, Prof. James Hansen sign open letter in support of HSBC 9
Public figures from across the arts, climate science, the economy, faith and more have signed an open letter in support of 9 women who were acquitted last week for breaking windows at HSBC’s HQ in Canary Wharf in 2021. The signatories are calling for the bank to be held accountable for their enormous fossil fuel investments: over £80 billion pounds in the 5 years after the Paris Climate Agreement was signed. "The world stands ablaze in front of us yet, as the case of these women shows, it is not illegal for banks such as HSBC to profit from destroying life on Earth. With billions invested in fossil fuels in the five years since the Paris Climate Agreement, we can’t help but wonder how many deaths these billions will have caused already? Why do such heinous crimes continue to go unpunished?”
Jury finds women who broke HSBC windows ‘not guilty’
In a decision which vindicates the actions of nine women who broke the windows of Europe’s second largest investor in fossil fuels, HSBC, a jury at Southwark Crown Court today returned a verdict of ‘not guilty’ after just two hours deliberating. Celebrated British fashion designer Stella McCartney CBE, who designed the clothing for Team GB in the London 2012 Olympics, dressed the HSBC 9 women for court, lending them shirts, blazers and suits to wear during the trial. The verdict came after a three week trial, where just over half a million pounds worth of damage by the nine women was set against the £80 billion of fossil fuels investments by HSBC in the five years following the Paris Climate Agreement, when over 195 nations pledged to keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees.
‘Ceasefire now!’ Extinction Rebellion protest inside Parliament to demand peace in Gaza
Email: press@extinctionrebellion.ukPhone: +44(0)7756136396 Please contact the press team for pictures. Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists staged a protest…
Don’t Pay for Dirty Water campaign vows to get ten thousand to boycott water bills
A new campaign calling for ten thousand people to stop paying their wastewater bills to force companies to end the practice of pouring 11 billion litres of raw sewage every year into UK rivers and seas is being launched today (15 November) by Extinction Rebellion and local water action groups.
Empty shoes for lost lives: Extinction Rebellion’s heartbreak plea for a ceasefire in Gaza
XR parents place hundreds of childrens' shoes in Trafalgar Square and call for immediate ceasefire In a moving ceremony in London’s Trafalgar Square today (Saturday), parents from Extinction Rebellion placed hundreds of empty childrens’ shoes at the world-famous landmark to represent all the young Israeli and Palestinian lives lost in the ongoing fighting.
XR occupies Daily Telegraph offices
Extinction Rebellion today (10 November) peacefully occupied the offices of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph newspapers to protest about their campaign of lies and disinformation aimed at stopping urgent action to tackle the accelerating climate crisis.
Dr Gail Bradbrook, Extinction Rebellion co-founder, ‘at peace’ with guilty verdict for breaking department of transport window
Dr Gail Bradbrook, the co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, was found guilty of criminal damage today after she broke a window at the Department of Transport in October 2019. She will be sentenced on 18 December. The jury’s verdict came less than an hour after the Judge told jurors that Dr Bradbrook had no defence in law and that her motivation was not relevant. Despite being repeatedly threatened with contempt of court and a jury-only trial Dr Bradbrook would not be silenced and argued that authorities should be prosecuting the politicians and corporations causing criminal damage on a ‘planetary scale’, not the ordinary people trying to stop harm.
Jury acquits Extinction Rebellion for Treasury Fire Engine action and Crown drops remaining trials after Judge suggests ‘not in public interest’
Defendant Liam Norton, a 38-year old electrician from South London, said: “The jury’s verdict was a victory for common sense and a victory against the Treasury who, as our action highlighted, funded new fossil fuel projects abroad for five years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement. The Treasury continues to be complicit in mass death and suffering from climate breakdown by financing the development of new oil and gas fields in the North Sea including Rosebank. This ensures we can never keep within safe climate limits. This trial was never in the public interest. When will the Treasury be put on trial for criminal negligence?”
Trial begins of XR co-founder Dr Gail Bradbrook amid threat to trial by jury
On Monday 30 October, 5 years after she stood with Greta Thunberg in Parliament Square to launch the ‘Declaration of Rebellion’, Dr Gail Bradbrook stands trial at Isleworth Crown Court for breaking a window at the Department of Transport in October 2019 - an act of resistance against the Department’s policies (such as support for HS2, Heathrow expansion and road building) in the midst of the climate and nature emergency. Dr Bradbrook, a mother of two, who holds a doctorate in molecular biophysics from the University of Manchester, is at risk of a substantial prison sentence if found guilty. The trial comes amid mounting concerns that, following intense lobbying on behalf of the fossil fuel industry, the right to trial by jury is under threat for those taking direct action to expose Government lies and corporate greed.
Extinction Rebellion Women vs HSBC: Crown Court trial begins Monday
Nine women of Extinction Rebellion, charged with over half a million pounds of criminal damage at HSBC HQ in Canary Wharf in April 2021, are due to appear at Southwark Crown Court for a jury trial beginning on Monday October 30th. The women are on trial for an action which took place at 7am on April 22nd 2021, during which they cracked the glass in several of the windows of HSBC’s HQ in Canary Wharf, London. The women wore patches reading ‘better broken windows than broken promises’ and placed stickers on the windows of the bank reading ‘£80 billion into fossil fuels in the last 5 years’ before cracking the glass using hammers and chisels. If found guilty the women face potential sentences of up to four years in prison.
Health professionals occupy road with ‘die-in’ and issue demands to Oil & Money summit delegates
Over 60 health professionals joined hundreds of protesters this morning outside the Energy Intelligence forum risking arrest by holding a ‘die-in’ and ‘climate inquest’ in the middle of the road outside the conference centre. The recently rebranded ‘Oil and Money’ conference is the largest annual gathering of oil companies and their backers. The Health for Extinction Rebellion members also delivered an open letter to the conference organisers and delegates, calling them out for their central role in the climate crisis, and demanding immediate mitigating actions. “We wish to make it clear that we understand and condemn the continuing deliberate complicity of the energy sector in this humanitarian disaster,” they wrote.
OCCUPIED! Protesters occupy City Of London insurers’ offices demanding they reject climate-wrecking projects in UK and Africa
Hundreds of protesters are occupying the plush City of London offices of ten Lloyd’s of London insurers demanding they rule out insuring the proposed West Cumbria coal mine and the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP).. Insurers from Lloyd’s of London have come under increasing pressure to rule out offering insurance to both the West Cumbria coal mine and EACOP, including protests at offices across the UK.