Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists have "glued, locked and chained" themselves to the Lloyd's of London offices, as they "blockade" the area while dressed up as "dirty scrubbers".
Some 60 protesters are sat outside the front-doors and on top of the London building on Lyme Street, to demand the financial giant stops insuring oil and gas projects.
The company is the insurer of 40 percent world's energy, including the controversial TMX pipeline in Canada, according to the climate action group.
XR said on social media: "Lloyd's underwrites the Canadian TMX pipeline expansion, exploiting tar sands at the expense of First Nations peoples."
The "Dirty Scrubbers" who are a part of Extinction Rebellion's blockade of Lloyd's of London's headquarters
@XRUK / Twitter
A spokesman for Lloyd's of London said: “Lloyd’s supports safe and constructive engagement on climate change and we’re continuing to work to support a responsible transition.
“In the interests of our people’s safety, we have advised Corporation employees and market participants not to come to the building today.
“The market remains open and trading is continuing online using our remote capabilities.”
City of London Police said it is “aware of groups of protesters at Liverpool Street Station and the Lloyd’s building on Lime Street” and that officers are at the scene.
XR said people had also scaled the outside of the building and unfurled banners, reading “End Fossil Fuels Now” and “Insure Climate Justice”.
Extinction Rebellion protesters said people have scaled the Lloyd's of London building and unfurled banners
@XRebellionUK / Twitter
One activist said: "I'm glued onto the floor because I feel it's the only way I can deliver a message that we need to stop fossil fuels."
The climate group shared a video of two protesters, or “dirty scrubbers”, dressed as cleaners with headscarfs and coloured dusters.
Asked what they were doing outside Lloyd's of London, one woman replied: “We’ve come to clean up this dirty building with all it’s greenwash!"
The other, a man, said: “The Lloyd’s insurers declared in 2020 that they would cease insuring fossil fuels this year and then at the end of the year they changed. So, we’re here to clean up."
They explained: “To greenwash is where an organisation says one thing and does another.
"An oil company's marketing will be full of windmills and solar panels, but 2 to 4 percent of their business might be renewables, the other 96 percent is oil and gas."
The action comes after activists from Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion caused Tower Bridge to be closed for several hours last Friday morning.
Police were called to the bridge after protesters occupied the famous landmark and unveiled a green banner with black writing reading: “End fossil fuels now."
Of Tuesday’s demonstration, XR spokesperson Clare Walmsley said: “We’re here to demand an end to all new fossil fuel investments and insurance. By underwriting the world’s most deadly fossil fuel projects, they are creating climate chaos – floods, famine, wildfires and death.
“Insuring new oil and gas projects in the North Sea will do nothing to solve the cost of living crisis either. Instead, it locks us into a system that’s already pushing millions into poverty.”
