Extinction Rebellion activists block highway around Amsterdam
Climate activists have blocked part of a major ring road around Amsterdam city centre, near the former headquarters of ING bank to protest against its financing of fossil fuels.
Amsterdam Municipality said traffic authorities had closed part of the road and diverted traffic “to prevent a life-threatening situation”.
Hundreds of activists walked on to the road in the latest road blockade organised by the Dutch branch of Extinction Rebellion.
Earlier this year, the organisation repeatedly blocked a major road leading into The Hague.
Some of Saturday’s protesters walked along the closed A10 carrying a banner with the words “Change or die” as two police vans drove slowly behind them.
Another person carried a handwritten banner that said: “ING get out of oil and gas now!”
Police criticised the protesters for blocking the road close to the VU medical centre, one of Amsterdam’s main hospitals.
“The blockade is very undesirable given its impact on the traffic in the city and, for example, employees at the nearby VU medical centre and people visiting patients,” a statement said.
The protest came despite ING announcing earlier this month that it was accelerating its moves to phase out loans for fossil fuel exploration.
ING made its announcement a week after nearly 200 countries at the Cop28 climate meeting in Dubai agreed to move away from planet-warming fossil fuels in a document that critics said contained significant loopholes.
Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman Let de Jong said the phase-out plan was not fast enough.
“We demand that ING immediately stops all fossil fuel financing,” she said in a statement ahead of the protest. “Every day, people are dying around the world because of the climate and ecological crisis. That has to stop.”
At past protests in The Hague, police used a water cannon to force activists off the road and arrested hundreds of people.
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