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The controversial climate protest group has announced it will be changing tactics starting from this April. It will no longer be engaging in disruption protests after UK government met its initial demands.
Just Stop Oil is to halt all direct-action protests from April, it has announced.
The group has been in operation for three years, with over 3,300 arrests made and 180 imprisonments. You’ll have likely seen the headlines; breaking glass and throwing soup over paintings, invading the World Snooker Championships, protesters gluing themselves to Van Gogh paintings, blocking buses on public roads, the list goes on.
These acts of civil resistance were intended to raise awareness about the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels, with the group insisting that all new oil and gas licences must be banned. Ed Miliband, the UK Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary, confirmed in March that the government would be honouring this demand and phasing out all new licenses.
As a result, Just Stop Oil says it will no longer be engaging in disruptive protests.
Hannah Hunt, a Just Stop Oil protestor, stood outside Downing Street last Thursday. She first launched the group’s campaign in 2022 with a Valentine’s Day speech.
‘Three years after bursting onto the scene in a blaze of orange, at the end of April, the Just Stop Oil campaign will be hanging up the hi-vis,’ she said.
‘We are one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history. We’ve made fossil-fuel licensing front page news and kept over 4.4 billion barrels of oil in the ground, while courts have ruled new oil and gas unlawful,’ Hannah added.
‘Just Stop Oil will continue to tell the truth in courts, speak out for political prisoners and call out the UK’s oppressive anti-protest laws.’
As part of the announcement, Hannah said that the group would be changing tactics to reflect more pressing problems, most notably a ‘corrupt political system’ that has ‘betrayed’ environmental goals and action. A final protest is scheduled to take place in Parliament Square on 26 April.
As Just Stop Oil partook in risky, invasive protests, the UK government pushed through even stricter laws that made it harder to do so without facing huge legal repercussions. New offences were introduced surrounding infrastructure interference and causing public nuisance, which has led to excessively long jail sentences for climate activists.
