Activists descended on Bodiam Castle near Robertsbridge in East Sussex today to demand its owners stop funding major fossil fuel companies.
It comes just days after Just Stop Oil protesters defaced Stonehenge and planes at Stansted Airport with orange paint.
Just Stop Oil spraying Stonehenge on Wednesday (Credit: Just Stop Oil / PA)
The 14th century moated fort is owned by the National Trust which banks with Barclays – which furious demonstrators call the worst funder of fossil fuel companies in Europe.
A large banner was unfurled by Fossil Free London activists from one of the towers, reading “National Trust: Protest Nature, Drop Barclays.”
Staff at the castle were quick to deal with the protesters and the banner was removed.
Bodiam Castle is a popular tourist destination (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
The protest group is calling the organisation – which owns and maintains nature reserves, national parks and, historic buildings across the UK – hypocritical for banking with a firm which invests in companies contributing to the climate crisis.
Recently, British charity Oxfam severed its ties with Barclays amid concerns over its handling of the climate crisis.
The protest comes one day before the Restore Nature March in London on the June 22, organised by a coalition of nature and wildlife charities, including the National Trust, and multiple climate activist groups.
Joanna Warrington, a spokeswoman for Fossil Free London, said: “The National Trust’s core mission is to protect our environment, nature and heritage; but they are failing to do this for as long as they bank with Barclays.
“Because our world and all we love in it is in crisis, yet Barclays is still pouring billions into the fossil fuels destroying it. It’s time for the National Trust to stand up and protect nature, by ending their relationship with this oily bank.”
The National trust said it “fully understands the urgency needed” to find solutions to the climate crisis.
A spokeswoman added: “We welcomed Barclays’ announcement that they will stop direct financing to clients engaged in oil and gas expansion, and that they will require their clients in the energy sector to prepare climate transition plans.
“It is critically important that we continue to engage with Barclays and the banking sector to do more and faster to reduce financed emissions.
“We respect people’s right to demonstrate peacefully and express their views, provided they are respectful and do not block access to our places or obstruct our conservation work.”
Source link
[Featured]
[Just In]
