French climate activists meet to protest against a "republic of polluters"

Some 2,000 environmental activists gathered at the La Défense business district to block access to the headquarters of the energy giant Total, the EDF electricity company, the Société Générale bank. and the French Ministry of Ecological Transition.

Protesters rallied around the slogan "Block the Republic of Polluters" and waved banners bearing the face of President Emmanuel Macron and the message "Macron, president of the polluters".

Some stayed on the ground, in what they said was an action symbolizing a "climate crime scene".

The event, a joint initiative of ANV-COP21, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, comes at the end of the "International Week of Rebellion" launched by Extinction Rebellion, the pressure group on climate change using civil disobedience to demand actions to combat climate change. politicians and governments around the world.

Clément Sénéchal of Greenpeace, told AFP that the demonstration in front of Total was symbolic because the company was "the climate change plant".

The French multinational is one of the 20 largest CO2 emitting companies in the world.

"We have come to denounce Macron's policy and show that politics in France is happening here and not in the ministry," Cécile Marchand, Friends of the Earth, told the crowd.

But in a message on Twitter, the French minister of ecological transition, Francois de Rugy, said the activists had "misunderstood the enemy … we act!"

Patrick Pouyanne, CEO of Total, defended the energy giant's strategy, claiming that the main demand of the population was to have "access to more energy, more energy and more energy." affordable and that energy is clean. "

A window was broken at Societe Generale Tower and tear gas tanks were briefly deployed by the police taking position inside the building, according to an AFP photographer.

Their action comes after climate change activists have immobilized parts of London during a week of protests that have so far resulted in more than 400 arrests.

Paris was in 2015 the venue for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), which resulted in a historic agreement on limiting climate change. However, activists doubt that commitments are being kept.