Protesters cover UK Prime Minister Sunak’s house with black cloth over oil policy

LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) – Greenpeace protesters covered the private home of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with black cloth on Thursday, intensifying their campaign against his government’s policy. policy in oil drilling.

An image posted by Greenpeace UK on the X messaging platform, formerly known as Twitter, showed four protesters atop the property in northern England, covering it in strips of black cloth, while two others held a banner saying it read “RISHI SUNAK – OIL PROFITS OR OUR FUTURE?”

A source in Sunak’s office said police were present.

“We make no apologies for taking the right approach to ensure our energy security, using the resources we have here at home, so we are never dependent on bullies like (Vladimir) Putin for our energy,” the source said.

Sunak said on Wednesday that he should leave the country on vacation that night.

Britain adopted the goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 under former Prime Minister Theresa May in 2019, and has rushed to develop its renewable energy capacity.

But activists have criticized the government’s record in recent years. On Monday, it engaged to granting hundreds of licenses to extract oil and gas in the North Sea as part of efforts to become more energy independent.

It also approved its first new deep coal mine in decades in December.

Altar defended its environmental record on Wednesday, saying it had done a better job than other major countries in cutting carbon emissions.

Greenpeace said four activists climbed on the roof of the prime minister’s home in Yorkshire, northern England, to protest his support for the expansion of North Sea oil and gas licences.

“We desperately need our prime minister to be a climate leader, not a climate arsonist,” Greenpeace UK said in a statement.

A poll released Wednesday showed that 67% of voters thought the government was mishandling environmental issues, the worst rating since mid-2019, when YouGov began monitoring public opinion on the issue.

Reporting by Muvija M, Alistair Smout, William James, and Farouq Suleiman; Edited by Kate Holton

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