Press Release: Christians Protest Outside Rosebank Oil Field Court Case

Tuesday 12th Nov

For immediate release

Photos can be credited to Stop Rosebank: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Xaf7g-gieBxe4TaQQRm0lz0kp1KcBolz

This morning, Tuesday 12^th November, Christians held a protest on Edinburgh’s Royal Mile in protest against Rosebank oil field. The oil project, set to be built off the coast of Shetland, is being challenged in court today as campaigners argue that the UK Government’s decision to approve Rosebank was unlawful. The protest, organised by Christian Climate Action, involved a ‘die-in’, where people laid down on the ground covered by a sheet, representing those who have died as a result of the climate emergency.

The die-in followed a rally of over 100 protestors, by groups including Stop Rosebank and Extinction Rebellion. The protest is timed to coincide with the court case against the approval of the Rosebank oil field, which would produce more carbon emissions than 700 million people in the world’s poorest countries do in just one year. Campaigners say the court case should result in the decision to approve the project being found unlawful, leading to the government deciding whether or not Rosebank should go ahead. The case is being brought by campaign groups Greenpeace and Uplift, with Equinor and Ithaca Energy, the owners of Rosebank, defending the case. 

Speaking at the action, the Rev Sue Parfitt, the 82 year-old Anglican priest who this year lost the right to conduct religious ceremonies after her arrest at a climate change demonstration said: “These bodies on the floor in the centre of Edinburgh today symbolise the suffering and death around the world that is already happening and which will increase exponentially as the inevitable consequence of climate change. Stopping Rosebank, and all new oil and gas projects in the North Sea, is a pragmatic necessity if we are to protect humanity in the coming decades.”

Val King, is a member of Christian Climate Action who was outside court, said: “How many fires, droughts and floods have to happen before big oil and gas call a halt to increasing fossil fuel emissions? The lies continue in this self-serving money-go-round where big business and banks collude to enrich themselves at a huge and unimaginable human cost.”

-ENDS-