SEVEN Just Stop Oil activists were arrested after they blocked access to departure gates at Heathrow airport today.
The protest was part of the Oil Kills movement, a wave of actions co-ordinated by groups across 12 countries that have targeted 20 airports so far.
The climate groups are demanding that their governments establish a fossil fuel treaty to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030.
At Heathrow’s Terminal 5 South, protesters blocked the departure gates and held signs reading: “Oil kills” and “Sign the treaty.”
The demonstrators were removed within 20 minutes, it is understood.
Just Stop Oil said that police also arrested a person who was filming the action and another 10 supporters on public transport.
Former Reading Borough Council chief executive Di Bligh, 77, was among those arrested.
She said: “Starvation already threatens those who have done the least to cause this mess.
“Billions will be on the move as they try to find land they can cultivate, water to drink — any safe place.
“Electric cars and windfarms won’t do it. Governments must act together before we reach more tipping points into chaos than we can prevent.”
In Germany, five climate activists from the Last Generation group glued themselves to the tarmac at Leipzig-Halle airport, preventing cargo planes from taking off.
On Wednesday, Just Stop Oil activists Phoebe Plummer and Jane Touil were jailed on remand for allegedly causing £50,000 worth of damage when they used fire extinguishers to spray paint onto departure boards at Heathrow.
During a hearing at Westminster magistrates’ court, Ms Plummer told Judge Neeta Minhasat: “Sending peaceful protesters like me to prison isn’t going to prevent us from resisting.
“You’re upholding an abysmal system. And you’re doing that to maintain business as usual. You won’t be protected from the climate emergency.”
Ms Plummer had already been told last week to expect a jail sentence after she was found guilty of property damage for throwing soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at London’s National Gallery in 2022.
Sixteen people are currently in prison for staging peaceful protests demanding government action to avert climate breakdown.
