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A protest highlighting the climate crisis took place on Friday, 1 March, outside the Leicester offices of an international insurance company.
Around 30 protesters from various groups, including Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion, joined forces to picket the offices of Tokio Marine in Rearsby.
The group demanded that Tokio Marine participate in an urgent transition from harmful fossil fuels to clean energy. The protesters want the company to refuse to insure new fossil fuel projects, hoping that a lack of insurance coverage will prevent the projects from going ahead.
One of the protest organisers, Dave Pearson, 64, said: "For ten years, I lived in Chad, one of the poorest countries in the world. It's already being devastated by the climate crisis, and we're making it worse.
"If we can't make rapid and radical changes to how we live, then hundreds of millions of people around the world will starve".
Other than security staff, the offices appeared empty. The protesters handed the security staff a letter with their demands to pass to Tokio Marine management.
Drumming and speeches kept spirits high in cold, rainy conditions, and the protest was good-natured. The protesters had built large mock oil pipelines from cardboard. They made no attempt to lock themselves to anything or enter the premises. Only six police officers were present, and they made no arrests.
The protest also included drama, song, fancy dress and leafleting to communicate the message.
The complete list of demands to Tokio Marine asks them to 'stop enabling fossil fuels by declining to insure new mining projects', 'respect human rights through diligent awareness of the activities they insure' and 'assist a just transition away from fossil fuels by backing renewable energy projects, and by supporting communities impacted by the climate crisis'.
Leicester resident and public health researcher Dr Becky Sindall, 37, is another organiser of the action. Before the protest, she said:
"Insurance companies like Tokio Marine give fossil fuel companies the confidence to destroy our planet by covering financial losses when things go wrong.
"We want to send a clear message to Tokio Marine to stop insuring fossil fuel projects and start improving the environment as they claim to do in their sustainability charter".
The protest was arranged as part of a week of global activity targeting Tokio Marine coordinated by the umbrella organisation Insure Our Future.
by Phil Morrish
Rhys Everquill
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Key:
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