Extinction Rebellion

As climate floods in Spain claimed hundreds of lives, thousands of us demanded insurers stop enabling the industries that are destroying our world.

Our week of action against the insurance industry starting 28 October 2024 was part of an ongoing international campaign which is forcing the sector to pull the plug on the fossil fuel criminals. Insurance companies, their directors and the people that staff them are feeling the heat from our actions and withdrawing support from carbon bomb projects and new oil and gas generally.

After thousands of us took to the streets in February, giant global insurer Zurich capitulated to our pressure and announced they were pulling out of all new oil and gas projects. What we do is working: it gets results, it makes our world safer, and it’s why we won’t stop.

So, in October,  we launched an expanded campaign called Insure Our Survival, focusing on mobilising rebel creativity and courage to target the key insurers, reinsurers and underwriters across the UK. Our non-violent direct action and powerful storytelling rallied around a single demand: stop insuring all new oil and gas projects and infrastructure.

The week started with three days of mass action across the City of London where we made the connection between flooding, food shortages and civil unrest. Our message for the insurance industry was: this is what’s coming unless you pull the plug on fossil fuels.

Extreme flooding is happening now all around the world. The horrific recent flooding in Spain where the death toll is in the hundreds, and almost a hundred more people unaccounted for, left people feeling utterly helpless and the emergency service unprepared and overwhelmed.

We cannot ignore what experts say, and what history has proven. 40% of food experts believe civil unrest in the UK in the next 10 years is either possible (38%) or more likely than not (3%) and that the most likely trigger for that unrest would be shortages of popular carbohydrates such as wheat, bread, pasta, and cereal, most likely caused by extreme weather including storm surges, flooding, snow and drought.

In England this year, the harvest was the second worst on record because of wet weather. The harvest of staple crops generally was down a fifth. We have been warned.

The week started with a pink lifeboat held aloft as hundreds of Extinction Rebellion activists wearing extreme wet weather gear and holding smoke flares paraded through the City of London before staging a die-in and crime scene at the heart of the City’s insurance offices.

Numerous insurance office occupations followed. The iconic Walkie Talkie building was occupied – chosen because it is home to insurers Ascot, Talbot, Chaucer, Markel, Allied World, CNA Hardy, Tokio Marine Kiln, Sirius International and Lancashire Syndicates. 

Christian Climate Action occupied the headquarters of Hiscox, an insurer that is refusing to rule out insuring the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline ‘carbon bomb’ project. Medical professionals from Health for XR targeted insurers AXA, to raise the alarm about the health impacts of the climate crisis the insurance industry is enabling. The offices of Allianz insurers were also occupied. 

Scientists for XR wearing white lab coats entered the lobby of the Prudential Regulation Authority, the insurance industry’s regulatory body overseen by the Bank of England, on Moorgate. The PRA could halt new fossil fuel projects – but instead they seem to have been hopelessly captured by the industry.

Outside the Royal Exchange, speeches by Global South climate activists, XR Scientists, XR co-founder Gail Bradbrook, music by Rebel and the Banned, and theatrics from the Crude Oil Mechanics drove home the message that extreme weather is wrecking lives and causing mass death and that the insurance industry must shoulder some of the blame.

Mass phone calls, email and social media storms organised by Digital Rebellion saw insurance executives bombarded with demands from around the world to drop their fossil fuel clients, and pull out of ‘carbon bomb’ projects that are flooding our homes.

On Tuesday six people were arrested as the offices of giant insurance brokers WTW were covered with fly posters and sprayed with chalk paint. They were drawing attention to a chilling report co-authored by one of their analysts that predicts a high probability of climate-driven food riots in the UK within the next ten years. And yet the firm is brazenly enabling oil, gas and coal expansion projects, leading us ever deeper into climate disaster!

Meanwhile, another iconic building, the Gherkin, was occupied as it houses the HQ  of the global reinsurance company SwissRe. 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 food shortages, price spikes, the threat to UK farming, and the withdrawl of insurance from home that are considered vulnerable to climate disasters.

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.

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. Dozens of activists queued with empty bowls in front of the giant potato close to the Lloyds of London building – only to be given a single pea each.

With Halloween approaching, small children in ghost costumes symbolising the young lives being lost to climate crisis-driven famine visited insurance offices in the City with their parents from XR Families.

On Wednesday one person was arrested as ten XR activists in business suits occupied the offices of insurers AIG Talbot. Later, three Extinction Rebellion protestors scaled the entrance to the famous Walkie Talkie building. The trio took positions above the main revolving entrance doors and put up banners reading “Insure Our Survival” and “Insuring fossil fuels = Climate Chaos”. 

Meanwhile, eight university students from the Education Climate Coalition staged a protest outside of the offices of QBE Underwriting and Aspen Management Agency in Fenchurch Street warning insurers: “Stop insuring fossil fuel projects or graduates will refuse to work for you.” The recruitment crisis is a major concern in the industry with one in three 18 to 24 year olds having “climate quit” companies with poor environmental policies.

Hundreds of XR protestors marched through the streets of London for a third day staging theatrical events highlighting the social collapse and unrest that experts are now predicting.

As it was budget day, Four Insurers of the Apocalypse strode into the City of London with three carrying red briefcases marked “FLOOD”, “FAMINE” and “WAR”, while the fourth lit the fuse on a giant carbon bomb to overheat the planet. 

Nearby, a dirty insurer in a gas mask was spotted lounging on a green Lamborghini and reading Insure Our Survival’s truth telling tabloid, The Sin. In a world exclusive, the only red top not owned by a business-as-usual billionaire revealed that insurers are boosting their profits by insuring fossil fuel crooks to flood our homes – then charging us more for flood insurance.  

Rounding things off, scores of zombies staged a “Discobedience” protest in a choreographed reworking of  Michael Jackson’s hit single “Thriller” renamed “Driller Killer”. The dissident dancing took place outside the offices of Marshall McLennan, the firm who are currently underwriting the EACOP pipeline despite a staff revolt. Before it has even been built, EACOP has displaced tens of thousands of people, depriving them of both their land and their livelihoods. If it was ever built and operational would be complicit in locking in irreversible climate change.

Across the three days we had hundreds of conversations with insurance employees at all levels of seniority and handed out several thousand flyers inviting them to “be a climate hero”.

If you work in insurance and are sick of insuring fossil fuels, contact our confidential Insurance Climate Hero Hotline for support, advice and a listening ear: insureoursurvival@extinctionrebellion.uk. Join our confidential monthly calls where we are building an insurer-led group to work for positive change.

We also had an advertising van playing a film which identified the CEOs of leading UK-based insurers as climate criminals, touring the City of London and taking up residence outside coffee shops. Here is the film the van was showing:

Over the rest of the week, over 30 local XR groups then took up the baton with actions against insurance offices in towns and cities around the UK.

Hundreds of rebels in Birmingham decked out in fire and flood-themed costumes, along with drummers and a giant ‘oily monster’ puppet, paid a visit to the offices of seven major fossil fuel insurers.

Dressed as cleaners, scrubbers in Bath literally ‘greenwashed’ the offices of Howden insurers who pay lip-service to sustainable credentials but continue to insure fossil fuels.

A Halloween zombie ‘discobedience’ dance in Glasgow drew widespread media attention as zombies death-danced to “Driller Killer” outside insurance offices

Outside an insurer in Yeovil, skeletons could be seen during their ghoulish theatrical occupation and die-in.

In Tunbridge Wells, drummers, flyers, and conversations competed with each other to be heard, and that’s what many did: hear for the first time how damaging and deadly fossil fuel activity can only go ahead if backed and funded by some of the world’s largest and leading insurance companies.

We are living in a time where scientists describe life on our planet as ‘perilous’.

The week of actions by Extinction Rebellion’s Insure Our Survival campaign demanded that insurers stop insuring all new oil, gas and coal projects. We won’t stop until they do.

Our ultimate aim is to force all insurers, reinsurers and brokers to quit the fossil fuel industry completely and for good. 

The post Insure Our Survival – how the week unfolded appeared first on Extinction Rebellion UK.

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Extinction Rebellion activists The Worley Three have been given 320 hours of community service today for causing £6,000 in “damages” for their peaceful protest at the offices of multinational corporation Worley.

The action involved decorating Worley’s Brentford offices with washable fake oil and chalk spray to spotlight the petro-engineering company’s key role in constructing the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), a project widely condemned for its devastating environmental and social impacts, and to demand the company sever its ties to the pipeline. [1]

The sentencing comes on the day that senior figures in the UN climate talks publish an open letter saying that the COP process is no longer fit for purpose and two days after 15 university students in Uganda were remanded to a maximum security prison for peacefully protesting the pipeline outside the Ugandan Parliament (Wednesday). Some of them were forced to appear shirtless in front of the magistrate, having lost access to their belongings. [2] Another 20 peaceful Ugandan Stop EACOP demonstrators had their trial adjourned this week to 26 November, [3] in what Human Rights Watch reports is an ongoing crackdown against the project’s critics by the Ugandan government [4]. Meanwhile the beleaguered project has run into fresh funding challenges. [5]

Sarah Hart, Tom Maidment and Danielle McHallam were found guilty 0n 3rd October after a chaotic jury trial at Isleworth Crown Court which left the defendants with little opportunity to properly prepare a defence. On Tuesday, the second day of the trial, Judge Hannah Duncan ruled out all defences. The judge then allowed the defendants to speak for ten minutes each before she brought back in the defence of ‘belief in consent’ the following morning. [6]

Even before any construction has taken place EACOP has been responsible for gross human rights abuses [7]. If it was ever built and operational it would be complicit in locking in irreversible climate change. [8] [9] [10]

Marijn van de Geer, former company director from West London, and a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion said: “Our legal system is clearly not fit for purpose if it thinks washable paint is more damaging than the displacement of 100,000 people and locking-in irreversible climate change.”

Defendant Sarah Hart, mother of two, aged 42 of Farnborough said: “We stand in solidarity with the students who have been unjustly imprisoned this week. We undertook this action in support of the affected communities of East Africa who have suffered intimidation, arrest and police brutality for standing up for their rights to land and clean water and a liveable climate. And also because the climate change it would cause threatens us all. 

“The temporary damage we caused stands as nothing in comparison to the widespread and irreparable harm this project has already caused to local communities. Worley is complicit in these crimes. Why are the directors and shareholders of Worley not in the dock?”

Former government lawyer Tim Crosland of Defend Our Juries said: “Finally today there’s high level recognition of what has been obvious for years – the intergovernmental COP process, the formal mechanism for preventing climate catastrophe is failing and unfit for purpose. In the meantime people are being criminalised and penalised simply for refusing to accept death and disaster for themselves and the people they love. How do the responsible judges feel about the abuse of the legal system to protect those causing the destruction and to repress those who resist it? Sure, they are ‘just doing their jobs’ and ‘following orders’. But at some level they must know they embody what Hannah Arendt termed ‘the banality of evil.”

Stop EACOP Coalition Campaign Coordinator, Zaki Mamdoo, said: “We salute and applaud all the brave defenders who continue to challenge those who are driving our collective destruction and the exploitation and displacement of our communities. The criminalisation of activists fighting for the rights and freedoms of oppressed people across the globe is testament to the fact that the political elite remains married to global capital and continues to serve its interests dutifully. We extend our undying solidarity to the brave StopEACOP activists unjustly sentenced today.”

More about EACOP

In 2023 Human Rights Watch reported that tens of thousands of people have already lost their lands and livelihoods in preparation for the project. If the pipeline is ever completed, that number will rise to over 100,000 people across East Africa. [7] 

The European Union voted in a special resolution that condemned EACOP for its human rights abuses in Uganda and Tanzania, abuses that included death threats, intimidation and wrongful imprisonment. [11] 

The East African Crude Oil Pipeline, if completed, would increase global CO2 emissions by 379 million tonnes CO2e over its lifetime [8], making our Paris Agreement targets unachievable [9] and making it likely we will pass critical tipping points in the climate system [10]. As UN General Secretary, António Guterres said in 2022: “Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness.”

Widespread opposition to EACOP has caused repeated delays and investment uncertainties since the project was initially proposed in 2013. [5][12][13] EACOP was designed to transport Uganda’s oil reserves through Tanzania for export to the world market but under pressure from campaigners, 27 commercial banks and 29 major insurance companies have ruled out involvement in the project. [14][15]As of now no building work has taken place.

Earlier this month, Extinction Rebellion targeted EACOP insurers Marsh McLennan as part of its Insure Our Survival week of action.

Notes to editors

[1] Extinction Rebellion disrupts pipeline engineers offices to demand East African Crude Oil Pipeline boycott: https://extinctionrebellion.uk/2023/03/06/extinction-rebellion-disrupts-pipeline-engineers-offices-to-demand-east-african-crude-oil-pipeline-boycott/
[2] 15 students remanded over anti-EACOP protest: https://observer.ug/index.php/news/headlines/82917-15-students-of-kyambogo-mubs-remanded-over-anti-eacop-protest and https://x.com/VicksonIvan/status/1855993501277642926
[3] Twitter: https://x.com/YGCUganda/status/1856254954517811467 and https://x.com/foeeurope/status/1854479884711510036
[4]  “Working on Oil is Forbidden”, Human Rights Watch, November 2023: https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/media_2023/11/uganda1123web_2.pdf
[5] Uganda’s $5 bln EACOP pipeline faces difficult debt talks: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ugandas-5-bln-eacop-pipeline-faces-difficult-debt-talks-2024-10-25
[6] Climate Protectors Found Guilty While EACOP Pipeline Engineers Walk Free: https://extinctionrebellion.uk/2024/10/03/climate-protectors-found-guilty-while-eacop-pipeline-engineers-walk-free/
[7] “Uganda Oil Pipeline Project Impoverishes Thousands”, Human Rights Watch, July 2023 https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/07/10/uganda-oil-pipeline-project-impoverishes-thousands
[8] ‘Monstrous’ east African oil project will emit vast amounts of carbon, data shows: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/27/east-african-crude-oil-pipeline-carbon
[9] New fossil fuels ‘incompatible’ with 1.5C goal, comprehensive analysis finds: https://www.carbonbrief.org/new-fossil-fuels-incompatible-with-1-5c-goal-comprehensive-analysis-finds/
[10] Exceeding 1.5°C global warming could trigger multiple climate tipping points: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn7950
[11] EU resolution on violations of human rights in Uganda and Tanzania linked to investments in fossil fuels projects: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/RC-9-2022-0409_EN.html
[12] 6. Is The East African Crude Oil Pipeline Finally Going to Be Finished?, June 2024 https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Is-The-East-African-Crude-Oil-Pipeline-Finally-Going-to-Be-Finished.html
[13] Who is left to fund East Africa’s controversial oil pipeline? https://dialogue.earth/en/energy/who-is-left-to-fund-east-africa-crude-oil-pipeline/
[14] StopEACOP banks checklist: https://www.stopeacop.net/banks-checklist
[15] StopEACOP insurers checklist: https://www.stopeacop.net/insurers-checklist

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.

Donate | Support our work
What Emergency? | Read about the true scale of the climate crisis
Why Citizens’ Assemblies? | Breaking the political deadlock
XR UK Local Groups | View a map of all local groups
XR UK website | Find out more about XR UK
XR Global website | Discover what’s going on in XR around the globe

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.

The post Extinction Rebellion supporters who protested pipeline constructors sentenced as 15 Ugandan students sent to maximum security prison appeared first on Extinction Rebellion UK.

Photos | Video 1 | Video 2 | press@extinctionrebellion.uk | +44(0)7756136396

A protestor was arrested as Extinction Rebellion scaled and occupied insurance buildings and unleashed the Four Insurers of the Apocalypse to warn of looming social collapse and unrest [1] in a third day of actions targeting insurers in the City of London.

One protestor was arrested today (Wednesday) as Extinction Rebellion’s Insure Our Survival campaign escalated their week of actions in the City of London demanding that insurers stop insuring the oil, gas and coal projects causing extreme weather such as the terrifying floods that have killed at least 51 people Valencia and other cities in Spain. 

One arrest happened as ten XR activists in business suits occupied the offices of insurers AIG Talbot – major insurers of fossil fuels –  in Fenchurch Street. They have unfurled banners reading “AIG Stop Insuring climate criminals” and read out a statement demanding that the firm immediately stop insuring all new oil, gas and coal. 

Some of the group handed out leaflets to staff asking them to be superheroes by pressuring their bosses to pull the plug on insuring the deadly expansion of fossil fuel exploration and production, while others played a giant game of Climate Collapse Jenga in the street outside. 

One activist was arrested for an alleged breach of bail conditions while taking part in a ‘soft blockade’ outside the building, handing leaflets to arriving staff and holding banners reading “Insure Our Survival” and “Stop EACOP”, a reference to the planet-wrecking ‘Carbon bomb’ East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline that will only be possible if the developers can get insurance.

This afternoon, three Extinction Rebellion protestors scaled the outside of the famous Walkie Talkie building in the City, home to insurers Ascot, Talbot, Chaucer, Markel, Allied World, CNA Hardy, Tokio Marine Kiln, Sirius International and Lancashire Syndicates.

The trio took positions above the main revolving entrance doors and put up banners reading “Insure Our Survival” and “Insuring fossil fuels = Climate Chaos”. At the time of writing, all three were still in position and large numbers of police and security had sealed off the doors and surrounding area.  

Meanwhile, eight university students from the Education Climate Coalition staged a protest outside of the offices of QBE Underwriting and Aspen Management Agency in Fenchurch Street warning insurers: “Stop insuring fossil fuel projects or graduates will refuse to work for you.”

The group, from universities including London School of Economics, University College London and Imperial College London, held banners reading “Students won’t work for fossil fuel insurers” and “QBE & Aspen you won’t get our brains.”

One in three 18 to 24 year olds has “climate quit” companies with poor environmental policies. [2] Education Climate Coalition spokesperson Shana Sullivan, a University College London graduate and part-time PhD student, warned: “Any graduate with a conscience wouldn’t want to contribute to these injustices. We want to ensure fellow students and graduates know about it, and implore these companies to change their policies.”

The dramatic actions happened as hundreds of XR protestors marched through the streets of London staging a series of theatrical events that highlighted the focus of the day – the social collapse and unrest that will happen in the wake of flooding caused by the climate crisis that the UK’s top insurers are underwriting.

Throwing the government’s red budget briefcase into shade, the Four Insurers of the Apocalypse strode into the City of London with scarier versions. Three of the fearsome four toted red briefcases packed with Flood, Famine and War, while the fourth lit the fuse on a giant carbon bomb to overheat the planet. “It’s not looking good for ALL of our futures unless insurers stop insuring new oil, coal and gas,” one of them said.

Nearby, a dirty insurer in a gas mask was spotted lounging on a green Lamborghini and reading Insure Our Survival’s truth telling tabloid, The Sin. In a world exclusive, the only red top not owned by a business-as-usual billionaire revealed that insurers are boosting their profits by insuring fossil fuel crooks to flood our homes – then charging us more for flood insurance.  

A mass zombie die-in, scores of zombies and protesters “Discobedience” dancing to a climate emergency version of Michael Jackson’s hit single “Thriller” renamed “Driller Killer”, an Unfairground game, food, music and speeches, all combined to spread Insure Our Survival’s message throughout the City.

Insure Our Survival spokesperson, Steve Tooze, said: “These three days are about bringing home to the public and the insurance industry the terrible and deadly consequences of insuring new oil, gas and coal projects at a time of accelerating climate emergency.

“Today, we focus on the ultimate effect of flooding from climate crisis-driven extreme weather – social collapse, unrest and rioting as hungry, desperate people begin to panic. One of the world’s most respected climate research bodies, the Potsdam Institute, warns that will happen unless the fossil fuel criminals being enabled by the insurance industry are stopped from digging and drilling more of their deadly products. [3]

“We hope the insurers are hearing us loud and clear – you have the power to stop the fossil fuel industry in its tracks and until you use that power you will face an escalating campaign of protest and action that will wreck your reputation and damage your share price.

“Insurers will see evidence of this escalation tomorrow as protests spread out across the UK with Insure Our Survival activists targeting the insurance offices and operations in towns and cities in England, Wales and Scotland.” 

As today’s actions took place the medical profession’s most respected publication, The Lancet published a report called Countdown on Health and Climate Change that reports extreme drought is affecting 48% of the global land area. [4]

This is the final day of action in the City of London. The action will continue throughout the week in the following cities and towns: Manchester, Banbury, Northampton, Bath, Birmingham, Bournemouth, Colchester, Harrogate, Preston, Newbury, Eastbourne, Chester and Oxford.

Notes to editors

[1] Experts warn of risk of civil unrest in UK due to food shortages: https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2023/research/risk-civil-unrest-food-shortages/
[2] Climate quitting – younger workers voting with their feet on employer’s ESG commitments, January 2023: https://kpmg.com/uk/en/home/media/press-releases/2023/01/climate-quitting-younger-workers-voting-esg.html 
[3] The 2024 state of the climate report: Perilous times on planet Earth,  Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, October 2024: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biae087/7808595
[4] Extreme drought hits 48% of global land area The latest Lancet Countdown report reveals the health threats of climate change have reached record-breaking levels.

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.

Donate | Support our work
What Emergency? | Read about the true scale of the climate crisis
Why Citizens’ Assemblies? | Breaking the political deadlock
XR UK Local Groups | View a map of all local groups
XR UK website | Find out more about XR UK
XR Global website | Discover what’s going on in XR around the globe

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.

The post ‘They predict a riot’ Extinction Rebellion warn fossil fuel insurers could spark social unrest appeared first on Extinction Rebellion UK.

Photos | Video 1 | Video 2 | press@extinctionrebellion.uk | +44(0)7756136396

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.

Donate | Support our work
What Emergency? | Read about the true scale of the climate crisis
Why Citizens’ Assemblies? | Breaking the political deadlock
XR UK Local Groups | View a map of all local groups
XR UK website | Find out more about XR UK
XR Global website | Discover what’s going on in XR around the globe

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.

The post After the floods – hunger and wrecked lives appeared first on Extinction Rebellion UK.

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A pink boat sailed through the City of London as hundreds of Extinction Rebellion activists occupied world-famous buildings, staged climate crime scenes and mass die-ins and marched to demand insurers stop insuring climate breakdown.

Extinction Rebellion occupied the world-famous Walkie Talkie tower and sailed an iconic pink boat through the streets of the City of London today (Monday) to kick off a week of mass protests in the capital and across the UK calling on the insurance industry to stop insuring fossil fuel criminals who are heating up the planet and flooding our homes. 

An inflatable version of the boat that made its game-changing first XR appearance in Oxford Circus in April 2019 was hoisted on the shoulders of activists, holding smoke flares and wearing extreme wet weather gear, surrounded by hundreds of protestors.

This morning, groups of protestors staged a dramatic wave of insurance occupations across the City. They occupied the lobby of the Walkie Talkie building, home to insurers Ascot, Talbot, Chaucer, Markel, Allied World, CNA Hardy, Tokio Marine Kiln, Sirius International and Lancashire Syndicates, and 60 Gracechurch Street, where insurers Allianz have offices. 

Supporters of Scientists for XR wearing white lab coats entered the lobby of the Prudential Regulation Authority, the insurance industry’s regulatory body overseen by the Bank of England, on Moorgate. The PRA could halt new fossil fuel projects – but they’re choosing profit over planet.

Activists from Christian Climate Action staged a protest inside 22 Bishopsgate where Hiscox, an insurer that is refusing to rule out insuring the East Africa Crude Oil ‘carbon bomb’ pipeline, is headquartered. 

At 20 Gracechurch Street, the offices of insurers AXA, medical professionals from Health for XR staged a street picket to express their serious concerns about the health impacts of the climate crisis that the insurance industry is enabling. 

Huge lines of workers formed outside the Walkie Talkie and 22 Bishopsgate as a security clampdown was hurriedly staged. Protesters at all five offices handed out leaflets to arriving workers calling on them to be superheroes and pressure their businesses to get out oil, gas and coal insurance. They also delivered ultimatum letters to insurance CEOs warning they would face more actions unless they pull the plug on their fossil fuel clients.

This afternoon, activists will stage mass die-ins in streets and outside insurance offices across the City to symbolise the billions who are threatened with misery, hunger and death from floods, heatwaves, famine, social unrest and war if insurers continue to enable climate breakdown. 

Hundreds of XR marchers, accompanied by samba drummers, will visit each occupation site and the offices of other insurers in the City with banners reading Insure Our Survival. At several offices, they are staging Climate Crime Scenes taping off the pavement and entrances with police tape.

Outside the Royal Exchange, speeches by Global South climate activists, XR Scientists, XR co-founder Gail Bradbrook, music by Rebel and the Banned, and theatrics from the Crude Oil Mechanics will drive home the message that extreme weather is wrecking lives and causing mass death and that the insurance industry must shoulder some of the blame.

Mass phone calling and email actions and social media storms by Digital Rebellion saw insurance executives bombarded with demands from around the world to drop their fossil fuel clients, and pull out of ‘carbon bomb’ projects that are flooding our homes.

Insure Our Survival spokesperson Steve Tooze said: “Each day this week we will be telling a story about the terrible impact that insurers are having on the lives of ordinary people here and across the world by insuring fossil fuel criminals to keep digging and drilling for oil, gas and coal and heating up the planet.

“Today we are highlighting the climate crisis-driven extreme weather that we have seen causing floods that have wrecked homes and farmland across the UK, as well as in Europe, the USA and the Global South.

“We want to make clear the dirty trick that insurers are playing on us all by insuring fossil fuels that cause flooding and then charging us more to insure our homes – or refusing to insure them at all – because the risk of flooding has increased.

“The campaign has targeted 52 insurers and we aim to permanently toxify these insurance brands in the minds of the public and the business community by strongly linking them with the fossil fuel companies who are causing the climate chaos we all see getting worse every day.

“But we will also be making an appeal to the insurance industry and the people working in it – to use their power to pull the plug on fossil fuels by refusing to insure new oil, gas and coal projects and infrastructure. 

“Every insurer that declares they will do so will be instantly removed from our target list. Failure to do so will mean the risk of repeated visits this week, and in the weeks and months to come, until they meet our demand.

“Major insurers Zurich pulled out of new oil and gas after our week of actions in February. Italy’s biggest insurer Generali went a long way to doing the same last week. Now it’s time for the rest to get on to the right side of history by following in their footsteps.” 

Extinction Rebellion will be staging another two days of protests and actions in the City of London before activists stage more than 30 actions against insurance offices and businesses in towns and cities across the UK from Thursday 31 October to Saturday 2 November.

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.

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