Equinor AGM protest: resisting new fossil fuels
On Tuesday 14th May Norwegian oil giant Equinor held their AGM in Stavanger. In solidarity with the activists from around the who world travelled to Norway to protest Equinor’s plans for oil and gas expansion at the AGM, we held a protest outside of the company’s Aberdeen offices.
Our message was clear: Scotland will be fossil free. The transition away from fossil fuels is both necessary and inevitable. It will happen thanks to people power – not the oil and gas industry.
Stop new gas burning at Peterhead
Equinor, one of the UK’s biggest energy profiteers , is involved in several projects which would be disastrous for both the climate and cost of living crises if they are allowed to go ahead. The firm’s plans to build a new gas burning power station in Peterhead would lock Scottish households into reliance on unaffordable fossil fuels for decades to come.
The existing power station in Peterhead has been Scotland’s biggest polluter for the last five years, and the new plant would significantly increase the emissions from the site. The Scottish Government must use their power to reject the new fossil fuel infrastructure at Peterhead.
Campaigning to Stop Rosebank oil field
Equinor is also behind the massive Rosebank oil field, which the UK Government recklessly approved permission to start development last year despite huge opposition from activists, politicians and scientists.
130,000 people signed a petition calling for the UK Government to reject Rosebank, over 200 organisations published an open letter opposing the field, and thousands of letters and emails have been written to politicians, resulting in Rosebank being repeatedly challenged in the Scottish, UK and Norwegian parliaments.
A legal challenge against the field is currently underway and will be heard in the coming months. Lauren from the Stop Rosebank campaign spoke at the AGM and warned the company that thousands of people will continue to fight their expansion plans.
We brought messages from people all over the UK to Equinor’s offices and stuck them on their windows with post-it notes.
In the last two years, Equinor has made £90 billion in profits while energy bills have skyrocketed and families have been plunged into fuel poverty. To provide affordable, reliable energy and a just transition for workers and communities, both the Scottish and UK Governments need to rapidly ramp up their investments in renewables and stop approving new fossil fuel projects.
If you are interested in getting involved in campaigning against the new power station in Peterhead, come along to our online interactive workshop on Thursday 13th June – we’ll be discussing what is being planned in Peterhead, the role of Carbon Capture and Storage in the development, and how we can organise across the climate movement to resist this key piece of fossil fuel infrastructure in Scotland.
You can also sign the petition to the Scottish Government urging them to reject the Peterhead propsals