Just Stop Oil has delivered a warning to new prime minister Keir Starmer – after he and the Labour Party failed to acknowledge a previous ultimatum the group sent. It says that because of his failure to respond, it has been left with no choice but to prepare to take action at UK airports this summer over the climate crisis.
Just Stop Oil: a warning to Starmer
As the Canary previously reported, Just Stop Oil wrote to all political parties in June ahead of the general election. The group called on leaders to join the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
13 countries including Colombia and Fiji, and the European Parliament, have endorsed the treaty. As it says on its website, it aims to:
complement the Paris Agreement by providing the global roadmap needed to halt the expansion of fossil fuel, manage an equitable phase-out of coal, oil and gas, and lay the foundations for a true just energy transition in which no worker, community or country is left behind.
However, Labour and Starmer did not respond. So, Just Stop Oil has written to him again.
The group wrote:
We write to congratulate you on becoming Prime Minister and to acknowledge that one of the first steps of your new government has been to reaffirm your commitment to end new UK oil and gas licensing. This is an essential first step towards what is required to end the UK’s contribution to the climate crisis. However, we all know that it is not enough.
We also need to rapidly phase out our existing oil and gas projects and to end the use of fossil fuels across our economy. This is not only the view of Just Stop Oil; the call for a rapid phase out of fossil fuels is backed by climate science, by global equity considerations, by international law and by global public opinion.
Airports in its sights
It noted that in its last letter, Just Stop Oil:
indicated that unless such assurances were provided by 12 July, we would be forced to take action to protect our communities by engaging in a campaign of noncooperation against fossil fuel use, at airports across the country.
We are writing now to let you know that since no such assurances have been received we remain in civil resistance and are preparing to take action, but that, as ever, we remain open to dialogue
It is, of course, unlikely that Starmer will respond.
The group’s plans to protest at airports were leaked thanks to a snitch journalist back in April. This led to cops arresting dozens of members in June over the plans.
Just Stop Oil may be coordinating across Europe as well as the UK. However, airports have already fought back – with courts already granting Heathrow, Stansted, Manchester, and East Midlands airports with injunctions against protests.
As the group summed up in its letter to Starmer:
The era of fossil fuels is over. It’s time to stop waging war on humanity.
How this summer will pan out in terms of the group’s actions at airports remains to be seen – but injunctions and Starmer’s inaction will be unlikely to stop them.
Featured image via the Canary
