Climate activists from Extinction Rebellion have blocked a part of the freeway round Amsterdam
AMSTERDAM — Climate activists blocked a part of the primary freeway round Amsterdam close to the previous headquarters of ING financial institution on Saturday to protest its financing of fossil fuels.
Amsterdam Municipality mentioned in a message on X, previously Twitter, that site visitors authorities closed a part of the highway and diverted site visitors “to prevent a life-threatening situation.”
Hundreds of activists walked onto the highway within the newest highway blockade organized by the Dutch department of Extinction Rebellion. Earlier this 12 months, the activist group repeatedly blocked a freeway main into The Hague.
Some of Saturday’s protesters walked alongside the closed A10 freeway carrying a banner emblazoned with the phrases “Change or die” as two police vans drove slowly behind them.
Another individual carried a handwritten banner that mentioned: “ING get out of oil and gas now!” Others glued their palms to the highway floor.
Police criticized the protesters for blocking the highway near the VU medical middle, one in every of Amsterdam’s predominant hospitals.
“The blockade is very undesirable given its impact on the traffic in the city and, for example, employees at the nearby VU medical center and people visiting patients,” Amsterdam police mentioned in a press release.
The protest occurred regardless of ING saying earlier this month that it’s accelerating its strikes to section out loans for fossil gasoline exploration.
ING made its announcement every week after practically 200 international locations on the COP28 local weather assembly in Dubai agreed to maneuver away from planet-warming fossil fuels in a doc that critics mentioned contained important loopholes.
Extinction Rebellion spokesperson Let de Jong mentioned the phase-out plan was not quick sufficient.
“We demand that ING immediately stops all fossil fuel financing,” De Jong mentioned in a press release forward of the protest. “Every day, people are dying around the world because of the climate and ecological crisis. That has to stop.”
At previous protests, in The Hague, police used a water cannon to drive activists off the highway and arrested a whole bunch of individuals.
