‘UN Climate Action: Activists demand oil corporations pay for environmental damages’ 24 September 2019

More than a dozen environmental advocacy groups at the United Climate Action Summit demanded that oil multinationals pay for decades of environmental pollution and called for real solutions to address the climate crisis. The UN Climate Action Summit held at the UN headquarters in New York between September 21 and 23. The demand came as some of the activists, disguised as hotel staff and guests, entered an oil industry-funded exclusive event attended by several oil major CEOs including those from BP, Chevron, CNPC, Eni, Equinor, Repsol, Oxy, PEMEX, Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil, Petrobras, Shell, and Total.

…“While communities have to abandon their homes, while US-based youth of colour have to bear the brunt of environmental racism every day, these fossil fuel industry executives wine and dine their way to profit. “Today, we are here to expose them and make them pay. Right now, they’re keeping out people who should be in the decision-making process. They should not be throwing dinner parties.” Outside the event, protesters spoke about the abuses of the oil corporations and demanded that they pay for their damages. Philip Jakpor, the spokesperson of the Environmental Rights Action and Friends of the Earth International, said inhabitants in Nigeria’s Niger Delta have continued to experience “first-hand” the destructive impacts of the fossil fuel industry.