LONDON (Reuters) – Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg joined protesters at a noisy demonstration outside the London offices of Standard Chartered bank on Friday to demand that financial institutions stop funding the extraction of fossil fuels.
The diminutive face of the global climate protests appeared briefly on the streets of the City of London, the financial heart of the British capital which is home to some of the world’s biggest banks and financial firms.
One placard at the demonstration attended by a few dozen protesters said “Keep It In The Ground” while another said “Can You Breathe Money?”.
The 18-year-old Thunberg is expected to appear also at demonstrations in Glasgow where world leaders will gather from Sunday for the United Nations climate summit, or COP26, to try to strike a deal to slow rising temperatures.
Mobbed by television crews and photographers, Thunberg stood alongside other young protesters behind a banner saying “Defund Climate Chaos”, before leaving shortly afterwards.
She has recently berated politicians for 30 years of “blah, blah, blah” rather than acting to curb global warming.
Campaigners were due to gather in other cities New York and Frankfurt to argue that big financial institutions should stop pumping money into the extraction of fossil fuels.
(Reporting by Victor Jack; writing by Kate Holton; Editing by William Schomberg)
