Breaking: ‘Just Stop Oil’ youth campaigners deliver ultimatum to Boris Johnson 

Press Release – Monday 14th February, 10:30am

“If governments are serious about the climate crisis, there can be no new investments in oil, gas and coal, from now – from this year.”  

Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency [1]

Two young supporters of Just Stop Oil, a new campaign demanding that the government stops granting licences for new fossil fuel projects, delivered an ultimatum letter to 10 Downing Street this morning.  [2]

Louis McKechnie, 21, announcing the delivery of the letter, made a brief speech to assembled reporters. [3] He said:

“We know what needs to be done, it’s simple, Just Stop Oil. Right now. They are doing the opposite.”

Referring to Boris Johnson’s comments before and during COP26 last year, Louis said :

“Last year our Prime Minister told young people that our future is being stolen before our eyes, and that we have every right to be angry with those who aren’t doing enough to stop it. He also said that his government wants to move beyond hydrocarbons completely and do it as fast as possible. 

“Maybe some of us believed him, because we wanted it to be true. But right now, he and his Government are licensing new fossil fuel projects and failing to implement policies to cut carbon emissions. They are torching the Paris Agreement, and with it our future. It is a terrible betrayal”

Hannah Hunt, 23, from Brighton read out the contents of the letter to the Prime Minister. It points out that according to the International Energy Agency in order to have an even chance of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C in line with the Paris Agreement, there can be no new investments in fossil fuel supply projects. 

She said:

“You know, that to have an even chance of limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C in line with the Paris Agreement temperature there can be no more investment in new fossil fuel supply projects.

“You know that failing to stabilise temperatures below 1.5˚C could be a death sentence for our children and for whole countries and regions of the world 

“But you are poised to commit to the path of catastrophe by permitting multiple new fossil fuel projects”

Just Stop Oil is demanding that: The UK government makes a statement that it will immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK.

“If you do not provide such assurance by March 14th 2022 it will be our duty to intervene – to prevent the ultimate crime against our country, humanity and life on earth.”

ENDS

Press contact:  07762 987334

Email: ​​​​​​​[email protected]

High quality photos and video footage available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Dgcuv5vJjzfdSrdpX6HJEaayoidc08xy

Website: https://juststopoil.org/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JustStopOil/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/just.stopoil/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/juststop_oil

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-t4U1Azf8AOkCBJILSNBmw

Notes to Editors:

[1] Quoted in the Guardian on the release of the International Energy Agency, May 2021- Net Zero by 2050: a Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector

[2] About Just Stop Oil

Just Stop Oil is a coalition of groups working together to demand that the government immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK.

We must urgently end our reliance on fossil fuels to avoid irreversible changes in the earth’s climate system. We cannot continue to burn fossil fuels in the belief that future developments in carbon capture and storage and other so-called “unicorn technologies” will allow us to suck vast quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 

The UK must begin this process immediately. It starts by calling a halt to any further fossil fuel projects on the UK Continental Shelf. That would give us eight years of fossil fuel production left in which to rapidly transition to a zero carbon economy.

Everyone knows we have to engage in massive changes. Just Stop Oil is a coalition of groups demanding the no-brainer things be done immediately – actions that will reduce the demand for fossil fuel energy dramatically such as insulating our homes, rethinking how we travel, getting on with renewable energy and making sure no-one is left behind. 

We either come together as humanity or we die. Youth know which they choose. They have already chosen. They are in the streets to demand a future. We are all in the streets to make sure they get it. It’s as basic as that.

Further information about Just Stop Oil and our demands here: https://www.juststopoil.org

[3] Full text of Louis McKechnie’s speech

Statement by Louis Mckechnie 14 February, Downing Street

Thank you for being here today. 

We’ve come today to ask the Government to meet its legal and moral obligations. Our Government is compelled by law to act, to avoid what it has recognised will be a catastrophic rise in global temperature. We know what needs to be done, it’s simple, Just Stop Oil. Right now they are doing the opposite. 

Last year our Prime Minister told young people that our future is being stolen before our eyes, and that we have every right to be angry with those who aren’t doing enough to stop it. He also said that his government wants to move beyond hydrocarbons completely and do it as fast as possible.

Maybe some of us believed him, because we wanted it to be true. But right now he and his Government are licensing new fossil fuel projects and failing to implement policies to cut carbon emissions. They are torching the Paris Agreement, and with it our future. 

It is a terrible betrayal. We do not trust our lives to this broken Government. They are failing us. 

We have not come to beg or to plead.  We have come to make it known that we are not ready to give up on ourselves or those we love.

[4] Full text of letter from Just Stop Oil to the Prime Minister:


The Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP
The Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA

[email protected]

14 February 2022

Dear Prime Minister.

On this Saint Valentine’s Day, we send you this letter of love for our country.

You know, that to have an even chance of limiting global temperature rise, in line with the Paris Agreement there can be no more investment in new fossil fuel supply projects, because the International Energy Agency (“IEA”), the expert energy adviser to industrialised governments, has said so.

You know that breaching 1.5˚C could be the death sentence for our children and for whole countries and regions of the world – your Government’s own Net Zero Strategy makes that painfully clear and you personally emphasised it throughout COP26.

But only a few months later, you are poised to commit to the path of catastrophe by permitting multiple new fossil fuel projects after having allowed more coal-mining in Wales and a new oil and gas field in the North Sea. The UK retains the Presidency of the COP process until November this year. The eyes of the world are upon you and your signal to ignore climate scientists and the advice of the IEA.

Just Stop Oil is demanding that: The UK government makes a statement that it will immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK.

If you do not provide such assurance by March 14th 2022 it will be our duty to intervene – to prevent the ultimate crime against our country, humanity and life on earth. 

We will not be bystanders.

Just Stop Oil

Annex 1 – Impacts of breaching 1.5˚C

1. Threat to global food security

Peer-reviewed research, Increasing risks of multiple breadbasket failure under 1.5 and 2 °C global warming, concludes:

“Risks of simultaneous crop failure … increase disproportionately between 1.5 and 2 °C, so surpassing the 1.5 °C threshold will represent a threat to global food security.”

2. Whole regions of the world will be rendered uninhabitable

According to peer-reviewed research, beyond 1.5˚C warming, tropical regions of the world risk wet bulb temperatures in excess of 35˚C, which is beyond the capacity of the human body to cool itself down and therefore beyond the limit of human endurance. Around 40% of the world’s population currently live in the tropics. Billions of people will face a choice: live where it is no longer safe to live, or leave.

3. Critical tipping points could be passed, leading to a “hothouse earth”

In 2018, leading academics, including Johan Rockstrom and Hans Schellnhuber, considered the temperature threshold for crossing critical tipping points in the climate system in Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene and concluded:

“Our analysis suggests that the Earth System may be approaching a planetary threshold that could lock in a continuing rapid pathway toward much hotter conditions—Hothouse Earth … Where such a threshold might be is uncertain, but it could be only decades ahead  …and … it could be within the range of the Paris Accord temperature targets.”

What did the Government’s own Net Zero Strategy say, published in October 2021?

“People are rightly concerned, with the latest IPCC report showing that if we fail to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the floods and fires we have seen around the world this year will get more frequent and more fierce, crops will be more likely to fail, and sea levels will rise driving mass migration as millions are forced from their homes. Above 1.5°C we risk reaching climatic tipping points like the melting of arctic permafrost – releasing millennia of stored greenhouse gases – meaning we could lose control of our climate for good. But the good news is that there is, still, a path to avoid catastrophic climate change.” [Executive Summary, p.14]