AG百家乐在线官网

COP26: Animal Rebellion protesters climb Defra and Home Office building with message for world leaders

The protesters are calling for the government to "defund meat, dairy and fishing" as they say it harms the planet and is cruel to animals.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Home Office scaled by protesters
Why you can trust Sky News

Animal Rebellion protesters have scaled up the side of the Defra building in the hope of pushing world leaders into addressing carbon emissions from farming and fishing at COP26.

The climate change protesters, part of an offshoot group of Extinction Rebellion, started climbing up a structure on the side of the Home Office, in Marsham Street, Westminster, which houses the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), at about 6am on Tuesday.

It took them about two-and-a-half hours to reach the top where they unfurled a large orange banner calling on world leaders attending the COP26 climate talks next week to "invest in a plant-based future".

Insulate Britain asks people to obey its 20mph speed limit on M25 from 7am on Wednesday - climate latest

The protesters have scaled up a structure on the outside of the Home Office. Pic: Matt Grant
Image: The protesters scaled up a structure on the outside of the Home Office. Pic: Matt Grant
Activists from Animal Rebellion after scaling the outside of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in Westminster, central London, calling for the Government to invest in a plant-based future at the upcoming Cop26 conference in Glasgow. Picture date: Tuesday October 26, 2021.
Image: Activists from Animal Rebellion

Just before 9am, a police officer spoke to the protesters through a megaphone and told them to come down as they were preventing workers from entering the building.

Inspector Richards said they were trespassing with the purpose of "intimidating, obstructing and disrupting" and directed them to come down and if they failed to do so they could be arrested.

He added that they are banned from the land for three months.

More on Cop26

A few hours later, police abseiled down from the top of the building and took down the banner but the protesters remain up there and have set up hammocks to lie in as well as letting off red flares.

Subscribe to ClimateCast on , , or .

One protester told Sky News: "Ahead of COP26, we are calling for - no, demanding - that the world wake up and switch to a fully plant-based diet.

"We don't do this because we want to do it, we do this because we have to do it.

"If we don't do this the government won't address it."

The protesters set off red flares after refusing to come down. Pic: Matt Grant
Image: The protesters set off red flares after refusing to come down. Pic: Matt Grant
The protesters have set up hammocks on the side of the Defra building. Pic: Matt Grant
Image: The protesters set up hammocks on the side of the Defra building. Pic: Matt Grant

A leaflet protesters were handing out said the meat and dairy industries are some of the leading producers of greenhouse gases while fishing is "destroying our ocean ecosystems, contributing to dead zones and increasing acidification".

It said world leaders at COP26, due to start on Sunday in Glasgow, "cannot talk about meeting the Paris climate targets and securing net-zero emissions without addressing that our food system is destroying the planet".

The protesters started climbing up the side of the Home Office at 6am on Tuesday. Pic: Matt Grant
Image: The protesters started climbing up the side of the Home Office at 6am on Tuesday. Pic: Matt Grant
The protesters were handing these leaflets out
Image: The protesters were handing these leaflets out

The group is also asking the government to "defund meat, dairy and fishing" and invest in a "just plant-based food system".

Police, the fire brigade and London Ambulance Service were on the scene not long after the protesters started climbing but no arrests have been made.

The protesters pulled themselves up with ropes and carabiners. Pic: Matt Grant
Image: The protesters pulled themselves up with ropes and carabiners. Pic: Matt Grant
The protesters were using ropes and carabiners to climb up the building as police looked on from below. Pic: Matt Grant
Image: The protesters were using ropes and carabiners to climb up the building as police looked on from below. Pic: Matt Grant

A Met Police spokesman told Sky News: "Police were called at 06:09hrs on Tuesday, 26 October following reports that a number of protesters had scaled a government building in Marsham Street SW1.

"Officers are on scene with the London Fire Brigade. There have been no arrests at this time."