(Bloomberg) -- Extinction Rebellion activists took their climate-change campaign to the London Stock Exchange, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and the Bank of England on Thursday, targeting the city's financial district to press their call for action on global warming.
Marchers with whistles, megaphones and drums halted traffic outside Goldman's offices on Fleet Street mid-morning local time, after at least seven people were arrested for gluing themselves to the main entrance of the LSE, temporarily blocking access. In the afternoon a group of 50 activists demonstrated in front of the central bank, seeking to hold up traffic.
The protests spread to other bank offices, as well as Her Majesty's Treasury, where seven more activists glued themselves to the building's entrance, according to a statement from the group.
Demonstrators wearing all-black clothing with red ties and safety helmets blocked the LSE's main doors in Paternoster Square, opposite St. Paul's Cathedral, saying they wanted to call attention to “humans making choices” that affect the environment from behind computer screens. Several others glued themselves to the Newgate entrance.
Those arrested may face charges of criminal damage and aggravated trespass, according to a sergeant at the scene. Separately, at Canary Wharf Docklands Light Railway station, activists climbed atop a train with protest signs.
Goldman Sachs, the London Stock Exchange and Bank of England all declined to comment.
The two-week protest has disrupted public transport and snarled roads and bridges in London, with targets including Heathrow Airport and Parliament Square. Police have made hundreds of arrests.
The demonstrators are demanding that the U.K. acknowledge the “crisis” posed by global warming, enact legally binding policies to reduce net carbon emissions to zero by 2025, and form a citizens assembly to oversee changes.
“We are demonstrating at the London Stock Exchange because there are people and businesses who are trading on ecological destruction, investing in fossil fuel, mining, palm oil companies and others,” Extinction Rebellion spokesman Adam Woodhall said. “We want to highlight this poisonous system that enables climate catastrophe because it focuses on money.”
The demonstrations were due to end in a gathering in Marble Arch in London's West End at 5 p.m. London time.
--With assistance from Lucca de Paoli, Alex Morales, Benjamin Katz and Lucy Meakin.
To contact the reporter on this story: Irene García Pérez in London at igarciaperez@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Neil Callanan at ncallanan@bloomberg.net, ;Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net, Christopher Jasper
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