Climate crisis campaigners have been arrested after disrupting BP’s annual shareholder meeting on Thursday 25 April at the BP International Centre for Business and Technology, London; accusing shareholders of having blood on their hands, and demanding an end to fossil fuel extraction and ‘profiteering from genocide’.
BP: blood on your hands
Organisers from Fossil Free London disrupted the BP AGM to demand shareholders stop investing in BP given the company’s role in climate breakdown and fuelling the war in Gaza:
Despite being shareholders, two people were refused entry to the meeting by the company after getting through an intense security check and were escorted off the premises, after which they had photos taken of their faces from various angles.
Four others began to disrupt inside the security and lobby area, lifting reddened hands to chant ‘blood on your hands’ and ‘Shut down BP!’ They were then carried off to a protest area inside metal railings on a lawn outside where they were seemingly allowed to continue with a peaceful protest:
Fossil Free London protesters were then given no opportunity to leave the premises and arrested by police.
Climate criminals
BP’s emissions rose for the first time since 2019 in 2023. The same year BP admitted it would be scaling back its climate targets despite posting record profits.
In 2024, they are pressing ahead with oil and gas expansion plans; despite warnings from the International Energy Agency and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that new oil and gas sites are incompatible with the Paris Agreement.
BP has been further controversial since Israel granted twelve licences for gas exploration off the coast of Gaza to BP and five other companies in October; a few weeks after Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
They are also the main operator and largest shareholder of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline which has provided Israel with more than 1,440 kilotonnes (kt) of crude oil since October 2023. Crude oil that has gone on to fuel Israeli jets and tanks bombarding Palestinians, following research conducted by Oil Change International. Following ICJ’s recent ruling on Israel; human rights experts have warned that countries and corporations supplying oil to Israeli armed forces may be complicit in war crimes and genocide.
Organisations receiving sponsorship money from BP have also come under widespread criticism for their role in greenwashing BP’s reputation, leading to the resignation of board members of the British Museum & the Science Museum. Both have also become sites of repeated public protests resulting in museum closures.
BP: shame on you and your shareholders
Joanna Warrington, a spokesperson for Fossil Free London which organised the disruption:
Shareholders should be hiding their bloody hands in shame today, not lifting them to vote for more ecocide and genocide.
Listen to the cries of a generation, of humanity, and stop investing in BP. Shareholders: you have blood on your hands.
Commenting on the securitisation of the AGM she said:
There was intense security, at least 60 police officers and security, maybe more, around the entire site, our phones were taken and put inside bags that had seals like you had on security protected items in supermarkets so you couldn’t undo them if you wanted to.
This was done for everyone and they put stickers on the front facing camera and the back camera was against an opaque bag. When we were escorted out they took photos of our faces from multiple angles.
Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised by military scale security at the BP AGM when their business and profits are going towards financing war in Gaza. There’s a pipeline that BP is the main operator of that supplies oil to Israeli fighter jets. Meanwhile they explore for more deadly fossil fuels off the coast of the occupied land. They are breaking international law but we get the penalty.
Featured image and videos via Fossil Free London
