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ENVIRONMENT

UK police charge Greta Thunberg after climate protest arrest

UK police on Wednesday charged Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg with a public order offence, following her detention at a protest outside an annual gathering of energy industry figures in London.

UK police charge Greta Thunberg after climate protest arrest
Environmental activist Greta Thunberg at the Oily Money Out protest in London. Photo: AP Photo/Kin Cheung

The 20-year-old activist — a key face of the movement to fight climate change — was among 26 people charged by the capital’s Metropolitan Police, after she was held at Tuesday’s demonstration.

Thunberg was charged with “failing to comply with a condition” imposed under Britain’s Public Order Act dealing with public assemblies and released on bail.

She is scheduled to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 15 November.

Thunberg was on Tuesday taken away by two police officers and put into the back of a police van outside the Energy Intelligence Forum, after joining a mass protest there.

Several hundred protestors had gathered outside the InterContinental London Park Lane hotel during the “Oily Money Out” demonstration, organised by pressure groups Fossil Free London and Greenpeace, blocking all entrances to the venue.

Prior to her arrest, Thunberg criticised “closed door” agreements struck between politicians and representatives of the oil and gas industry.

London police said they imposed “conditions to prevent disruption to the public” after officers arrived at the protest, which were then breached and prompted the arrests.

“The protestors were asked to move from the road onto the pavement, which would enable them to continue with their demonstration without breaching the conditions,” a police statement said.

Thunberg, who started the so-called “School Strike for Climate” movement as a teenager, was fined by a court in Sweden earlier this month.

It followed the court convicting her for having resisted arrest during a July protest that blocked traffic.

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CLIMATE CRISIS

Why did Sweden’s emissions drop in 2023 – and what’s in store for the future?

Sweden's greenhouse gas emissions fell by two percent last year, but the good news may be short-lived.

Why did Sweden's emissions drop in 2023 – and what's in store for the future?

In 2023, the Scandinavian country’s emissions amounted to 44.2 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, a drop of about one tonne from 2022, according to preliminary statistics, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement.

The two percent decrease was in line with a 1.6 percent drop announced by Statistics Sweden in late May.

The EPA said the 2023 figure represented a decrease of 38 percent from 1990.

The EPA attributed the year-on-year drop primarily to lower emissions from industry – in particular the cement, iron and steel industries, due to lower production as a result of Sweden’s economic recession – and the electric and district heating sector, due to lower electricity prices.

“Emissions have continued to decrease, not least in industry and electric and district heating, which form part of the EU’s emissions trading system,” Anna-Karin Nyström, the head of the EPA’s climate target division said.

“The pace has slowed compared to the year before, when above all domestic transport and (fuel-based) work machinery contributed to a sharp reduction.”

But in March, an independent panel of experts tasked with reviewing climate policy said the government’s plans would lead to short-term emissions increases in 2024 and knock it off-course from its 2030 reduction target.

The Swedish Climate Policy Council, said in the March report that “policy adopted in 2023 will increase emissions and does not lead towards the fulfilment of Sweden’s climate goals and EU commitments by 2030”.

The council said several measures, such as a reduced fuel tax, put climate ambitions at risk.

But it also lamented a lack of concrete measures in the government’s “climate policy action plan”, a roadmap that the government is required by law to present every four years.

Sweden’s Minister for Climate and the Environment Romina Pourmokhtari said she was “not particularly worried” about the review’s assessments.

“They are based on the government’s policy announcements during 2023, and there are several measures that have been added since then,” Pourmokhtari said.

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