Climate activists blockade Invergordon rig maintenance facility
Activists from Extinction Rebellion Scotland have blocked the main entrance of an oil rig maintenance facility at Port of Cromarty Firth’s Invergordon base.
Protests kicked off at 6.50 hrs local time with a group of activists placing a large 4.2 m tall prop oil rig made of scrap materials with a banner saying “Decommission Me Now”. Four are locked onto prop oil barrels in the road, preventing traffic access.
John Lardner, 69, XR Scotland activist and retired history teacher, said: “The Chapham House report says that even if the Paris Agreement carbon emissions were achieved, we have almost no chance of staying below pre-industrial levels of warming. We have to act now. Our carbon budget is empty. We have no option.”
The group is calling for the end of fossil fuel extraction and support for a transition of skilled oil and gas workers into decommissioning and renewable industries, not new oil fields. Other activists are holding banners nearby saying “Climate Emergency” and “No Future in Fossil Fuels”.
