LONDON - Climate activist Greta Thunberg arrived at a London court on Thursday to face trial for a public order offence stemming from a protest outside an oil and gas conference last year.
Thunberg, who became a prominent campaigner worldwide after staging weekly protests in front of the Swedish parliament in 2018, was arrested in October after protesting outside a London hotel where the Energy Intelligence Forum was hosting industry leaders.
The 21-year-old is one of five people listed to stand trial at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday. All five, aged between 19 and 59, have pleaded not guilty to a single offence under the Public Order Act for failing to move when asked to by police.
A smiling Thunberg made her way through photographers and police officers to chants of “climate protest is not a crime” by environmental activists who were stood outside the court.
The trial will be conducted by a judge without a jury and is expected to take at least two days. If convicted, they would face a maximum fine of £2,500 ($3,160).
Environmental protesters, including from Greenpeace, had said they would demonstrate outside the court in solidarity with the defendants.
Thunberg was one of dozens activists arrested for disrupting access to the Oct 17 conference, which brought together major oil and gas companies at a luxury hotel in the British capital.
Demonstrators greeted forum participants with cries of “Shame on you!” while carrying placards reading “Stop Rosebank”, a reference to a controversial new North Sea oil field that the government authorised in September.
Police arrested Thunberg for failing to adhere to an order not to block the street. Released on bail, she took part in another demonstration in front of the hotel the next day, along with hundreds of others.
Reversals by the Conservative government in the UK of its pledges to combat climate change have angered campaigners.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has postponed a ban on the sale of combustion-engine cars, and announced plans to grant new North Sea oil and gas licences as the country battles with an inflation-fuelled cost-of-living crisis.
On Monday, the UK’s independent advisory body on climate strategy expressed concern that the government was sending out “mixed messages” that were tarnishing its international influence on the issue.
