'Shell out!': XR Wandsworth enjoy success at council's climate change festival

Extinction Rebellion Wandsworth experienced success at the council's climate change festival this weekend.

On Saturday November, 13 XR Wandsworth marched into Battersea Arts Centre's (BAC) Grand Hall where the council's 'Together on Climate Change Festival' was taking place.

Members of XR confronted the Ubitricity stall which was displaying the logo of its sponsor, fossil fuel giant Shell.

Their demand was simple, 'Shell Out!'

Bernard Kelly, XR member said: "We object to Shell's presence here because Shell has lied about the climate crisis for 30 years.

"They undermined progress at COP 26 and are continuing to fuel the environmental catastrophe."

The response to XR's appearance was overwhelmingly positive with a speaker from Roehampton University taking to the stage to welcome XR's intervention.

The climate activists refused to leave until the Shell display was taken down.

They were successful and left the Grand Hall to the sound of applause from stallholders and local residents.

Some of the stallholders displayed wooden elephants decorated with XR logos on their tables in a silent protest against XR's exclusion from the day.

XR Wandsworth had also proposed to hold a citizen's assembly on air pollution earlier on in the week which was turned down by the council.

Instead XR held their own event outside BAC, its pink table invited passersby to stop and talk about the climate emergency.

Before the protest inside BAC XR members marched slowly from BAC to Clapham Junction and back again to highlight the appalling air pollution in Wandsworth.

XR members in hazmat suits and gas masks led the march, carrying a double-life size black coffin to commemorate the 300 Wandsworth residents a year who die prematurely because of air pollution.

Caroline Hartnell, XR Wandsworth member said: "Wandsworth Councils Together on Climate Change Festival, like its Climate Summit last November, places all the emphasis on what residents and local businesses can do to address the climate emergency.

"Basically the council wants to talk to us, what we as individuals can do, while we want to talk about them, what the council can and must do.

"While it is important for individuals and small businesses to do their bit, individual action can achieve only a very limited amount.

"In the end it's government, local and national and corporations that need to act if we are to achieve the cuts in carbon emissions we need to avoid catastrophic global warming over 1.5C."

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