Greta Thunberg called on Thursday at the end of the first day of negotiations in London not to confuse the “enemy”. The environmental activist is on trial there for disturbing public order during a demonstration against the hydrocarbon industry last October.
• Also read: Greta Thunberg criticized in Germany after calling for a “ceasefire” in Gaza
“Even though we are the ones standing here…environmental and human rights activists around the world are being prosecuted…for acting in accordance with science. We must remember who the real enemy is,” the 21-year-old Swede told reporters as she left Westminster Magistrates Court, where her trial is due to end on Friday.
A total of 26 activists were arrested for disrupting access to the Energy Intelligence Forum, a conference that brought together major oil and gas companies at a luxury hotel in the British capital on October 17, 2023.
That day, activists greeted participants with “Shame on you.” “Behind these closed doors (…) politicians without format are making agreements and compromises with lobbyists from the destructive fossil fuel sector,” Greta Thunberg told the press before being put into a police car.
The young activist is being prosecuted for failing to comply with London police orders not to block access to the hotel where this rally was taking place.
Released under judicial supervision, she took part in another demonstration in front of the five-star hotel the next day with hundreds of other people.
She pleaded not guilty to public order violations at an initial hearing in November, as did the four other activists who appeared with her. She faces a maximum fine of 2,500 pounds, or just under 3,000 euros.
Greta Thunberg wears a dark gray T-shirt and black pants and has her hair tied back in a ponytail. She is not scheduled to testify until Friday.
During Thursday's hearing, she appeared calm and smiled at activists sitting in the part of the room reserved for the public. She couldn't hide a sneer as prosecutor Luke Staton said in his opening statement that the five defendants had demonstrated on the first day of a meeting in London where key players in the oil and gas sector “discuss and debate” should figure out how to develop “sustainable solutions” for energy.
The activist then spent most of the hearing drawing in a small notebook.
“No crime”
Most of Thursday's debate revolved around the instructions given to the defendants by the police officers who arrested them, several of whom came to testify.
In a video shown at the hearing, Greta Thunberg was seen answering “no” to a police officer who asked her if she wanted to leave, then “yes” when he told her that she would be arrested if she did refuse to leave the premises. .
At the opening of the trial in court, a handful of environmental activists were present to support the world figure in the fight against global warming.
“What do we do when the world we know is under attack? We have to fight,” they said, holding a yellow banner that read: “The climate fight is not a crime.”
In the UK, Rishi Sunak's Conservative government's setbacks on key measures to combat the climate emergency and its decision to grant new permits for the exploitation of hydrocarbon reserves in the North Sea have sparked the anger of activists. They have filed several legal challenges and stepped up the lawsuits in recent months.
In return, they drew hostility from the executive branch, which tightened legislation to punish them harsher and discourage them from taking action.
Greta Thunberg, who gained worldwide fame with her “school climate strikes” that began in Sweden at the age of 15, regularly takes part in such demonstrations.
In October, the company was fined for blocking the port of Malmö in Sweden. Last weekend she took part in a march in the south of England against the expansion of Farnborough Airport, which is mainly used by private jets.