Two young supporters of Just Stop Oil, a one year old campaign demanding that the government stops granting licences for new fossil fuel projects, delivered an ultimatum letter to 10 Downing Street this morning. [1]
Hannah Hunt, 23, from Brighton announcing the delivery of the letter, made a brief speech to assembled reporters. [2] She said:
“A year on from delivering Just Stop Oil’s Saint Valentine’s Day letter, along with hundreds of others, I face multiple trials and the loss of my freedom because we refused to stand by while our government planned the destruction of everything we love.
“We may not succeed, and we may yet bequeath a poisoned bleak inheritance – but I make this promise to those I love: for the government to win, it will have to defeat the youth of this country for we will put our bodies on the line.
“Now I am asking you to pick a side, to join me, to stand with those future generations and with all the ordinary people willing to sacrifice their freedom to protect our future. We must stop the harm that is new oil and gas.”
Phoebe Plummer, 21, from London 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. [3] She said:
“One year ago our letter stressed that the government, of which you were a part, knew that breaching 1.5˚C could be the death sentence for our children and for whole countries and regions of the world.
“Since then, we have been warned by the United Nations that not only will we hurtle over 1.5˚C but also that there is “no credible pathway to 1.5˚C in place”.
“Accelerating the granting of North Sea oil and gas licences … is to knowingly plan for the death of countless millions, for the loss of entire nation states. It is an act of genocide, for which you will be held accountable. ”
She went on to deliver the following ultimatum:
“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 10th April 2023, we will be forced to escalate our campaign – to prevent the ultimate crime against our country, humanity and life on earth..”
ENDS
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Notes to Editors
[1] 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. Just Stop Oil is a member of the A22 Network of civil resistance projects. Climate Emergency Fund is Just Stop Oil’s primary funder for recruitment, training, and capacity building.
[2] Statement by Hannah Hunt 14 February 2023, Downing Street
A year ago I stood here and demanded that my government take the immediate steps needed to protect my future and the future of those generations yet to come, by ending new fossil fuel licenses and consents.
Instead of responding to the warnings issued by the UN Secretary General, the International Energy Agency (“IEA”), scientists and international institutions they are doubling down on licensing new oil and gas in the North Sea and consenting coal in Cumbria.
Instead of responding to the wishes of the British people they are implementing policies that have thrown millions into destitution while enabling fossil fuel companies to make the largest profits in UK history.
My rage, my fury is tempered by my love for life and humanity.
A year on from delivering Just Stop Oil’s Saint Valentine’s Day letter, along with hundreds of others, I face multiple trials and the loss of my freedom because we refused to stand by while our government planned the destruction of everything we love.
We may not succeed, and we may yet bequeath a poisoned bleak inheritance – but I make this promise to those I love: for the government to win, it will have to defeat the youth of this country for we will put our bodies on the line.
Now I am asking you to pick a side, to join me, to stand with those future generations and with all the ordinary people willing to sacrifice their freedom to protect our future. We must stop the harm that is new oil and gas.
[3] Text of letter to the Prime Minister
The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP, Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA
14 February 2023
Dear Prime Minister
A lot has happened since last Valentine’s Day, when we wrote to the predecessor of your predecessor, Boris Johnson. We invited him to follow the science and act on the advice of the International Energy Agency (“IEA”), which said that to have an even chance of limiting global temperature rise in line with the Paris Agreement, there could be no investment in new fossil fuel supply projects.
One year ago our letter stressed that the government, of which you were a part, knew that breaching 1.5˚C could be the death sentence for our children and for whole countries and regions of the world – and that your own Net Zero Strategy made this painfully clear. Since then, we have been warned by the United Nations that not only will we hurtle over 1.5˚C but also that there is “no credible pathway to 1.5˚C in place”.
Nonetheless, while your government has buried its head in the sand, change is happening. Several major financial institutions, the Scottish Government and the Labour Party have pledged to end support for new fossil fuels: a policy supported by the British public.
It’s just you that’s not listening, accelerating the granting of North Sea oil and gas licences and approving a new coal mine in Cumbria. This is to disregard the British public and to knowingly plan for the death of countless millions, for the loss of entire nation states. It is an act of genocide, for which you will be held accountable.
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 10th April 2023, we will be forced to escalate our campaign – 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]
