Celebrity climate crusader Greta Thunberg appeared tongue-tied this morning, unwilling to justify why she and other eco-warriors were blocking the entrance to JP Morgan in Canary Wharf.
The Swedish environmentalist was yesterday charged with a public order offence, after being arrested during a protest of the Energy Intelligence Forum outside the InterContinental Hotel on Park Lane in London on Tuesday.
She was released on bail with a trial set for November 15.
Despite her run-in with the police, the 20-year-old campaigner, who rose to prominence in 2018, was back on the protest trail today.
Joined by around 50 protesters from Fossil Free London, Thunberg sat behind several other activists, appearing to obscure herself from view outside the entrance to the banking giant.
One activist told our reporter that she did not wish to be the centre of attention. Despite this, the green protesters posted a video online publicising Thunberg’s presence at the demonstration.
Express.co.uk attempted to ask her why she had travelled to London to obstruct the entrance to JP Morgan, however she appeared disinterested in justifying her presence.
Instead, she allowed a fellow-demonstrator to respond to the question of why she was there on her behalf. The man standing in front of her interrupted and said: “For the climate, for the climate.”
Another one of her posse attempted to block our camera from recording her during the demonstration.
Earlier, Express.co.uk spoke to Fossil Free London’s spokeswoman who accused JP Morgan of turning the earth to “ash”.
Robin Wells, 30, told this website: “They can put green slogans, they can put ESG target but all we need to do is look at the numbers. And the numbers show that JP Morgan is the worst in the world at funding fossil fuels.
“Obviously our land is being turned to ash… and banks like JP Morgan are behind that.
“Without funding new oil fields like Rosebank in our North Sea, recently approved by our Government, [that project] wouldn’t be able to go ahead.”
The full-time paid activist added: “They’re incredibly expensive, these massive drilling infrastructure pieces of work and without banks like JP Morgan willingly providing that oily money, they just couldn’t happen.
“And that would mean the climate breakdown we’re seeing all around us wouldn’t happen either.”
JP Morgan has been approached for comment.
