Climate change protesters block access to French multinationals

PARIS (Reuters) – Climate activists have prevented hundreds of employees from entering the head office of French bank Société Générale, the national utility EDF and oil giant Total, said on Friday. environmental group Greenpeace.

Greenpeace said it was protesting corporate ties with the oil and gas industry, which, according to the group, is one of the drivers of global warming.

They pasted giant posters of President Emmanuel Macron carrying the slogan "Macron, president of polluters" and a banner bearing the inscription "Scene of climate-related crime" on the glbad facade of Societe Generale, showed Reuters TV pictures.

Police sprayed a group of people blocking the bank's main entrance during a protest.

Some protesters stuck together while others handcuffed themselves with plastic ties to metal poles to prevent the police from dislodging them.

Employees in worn city suits in front of their offices. "I just want to get in and continue in my job," said a frustrated bank clerk.

A spokesman for Société Générale declined to comment. An EDF spokesperson did not respond to requests for comments.

The protest took place as Patrick Pouyanne, Managing Director of Total, President of the Angolan state oil company Sonangol, and President of the Libya National Oil Corporation were to attend an annual summit on oil in Paris.

Greenpeace and the action group Friends of the Earth have already criticized Societe Generale for its financial role in oil and gas projects, particularly the Rio Grande LNG gas project in the United States.

Friday's protest echoed a series this week by the group of climate change activists in London, Extinction Rebellion, which caused disruptions in transport in the British capital.

Teen protestors on Friday staged a moving demonstration protesting political inaction on climate change near London Heathrow airport.