Camp for Climate Action to Target RBS HQ in Edinburgh
June 01, 2010
It has today been revealed that the bailed-out bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland will be targeted in Edinburgh this August by the Camp for Climate Action. The activists have labelled the publicly-owned bank as a ‘climate criminal on the scale of Heathrow and Kingsnorth’.
The Camp for Climate Action has in previous years taken direct action against the third runway at Heathrow and the controversial Kingsnorth coal power station in Kent, both projects are now unlikely to be built. And although the exact location of the camp will remain a secret, it has been announced that RBS will be the focus for action on the Mondday 23rd August, which the activists have dubbed ‘anti-bank holiday Monday’.
Kirsty Faulkener, said:
“Only last week, it was announced that there would be billions of pounds worth of cuts to essential public services. So people in the UK are already paying for the RBS bailout through our taxes and now we are seeing our public services raided to prop up RBS which is dirty to its core. Unless RBS’ fossil fuel finance is stopped, we will end up paying even more through floods, droughts, hurricanes, higher food prices, and the loss of all kinds of life."
The Camp will be taking place from 21st – 24th August which coincides with the Edinburgh Fringe festival. It has been suggested that the festival will also be a focus for the activists’ action because of RBS’ sponsorship of the Fringe.
The exact site of the camp and details of any action will be kept under wraps but it’s likely that the site for the camp will taken by a carefully co-ordinated, mass flash-mob which has proved highly successful in the past.
The Camp for Climate Action has said that it is targeting RBS because billions of pounds were poured into the bank which has been used to finance climate damaging companies such as Shell and projects, like tar sands extraction have come under fire for violating the human rights of Indigenous communities in Canada and are the dirtiest fossil fuel.
Tracy Chalmers, who was at the meeting in Manchester when the decision was made, said: “The Camp for Climate Action is coming to Edinburgh in August because that’s where the RBS headquarters are. RBS has poured billions of pounds of public money into fossil fuel projects around the world that trash the climate and totally disregard human rights. This is a climate crime that needs to be stopped, like we stopped Heathrow and like we stopped Kingsnorth.”
ENDS
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