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@ companies (Add Comment EDF, Total)
PARIS, April 19 (Reuters) – Climate activists have prevented thousands of employees from entering the headquarters of French bank Société Générale, the national utility EDF and oil giant Total, announced the environmental group Greenpeace.
Greenpeace said it was protesting corporate ties with the oil and gas industry, which she sees as a driving force of global warming. Activists also blocked the entrance of the Ministry of the Environment near the business district of La Défense.
Protesters stuck giant posters of President Emmanuel Macron carrying the slogan "Macron, president of polluters" and a banner bearing the inscription "Scene of Climate 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.
Greenpeace and the action group Friends of the Earth have already criticized Societe Generale for its financial role in oil and gas projects, including the Rio Grande LNG gas project in the United States.
A spokesman for Société Générale declined to comment.
A spokesman for EDF, which relies heavily on nuclear power plants and hydroelectric power plants to produce electricity, said 96 percent of its energy was carbon dioxide free. He added that EDF was committed to reducing its total carbon footprint by 40% by 2030.
A spokeswoman for Total said two company executives had talks with representatives of Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.
Total's chairman, Patrick Pouyanne, said Friday at a sector summit that his company had increased production to 2.95 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, surpbading its record of 2018, helped by increased production in Australia, Angola, Nigeria and Russia.
Friday's protest echoed a series of climate change activists in London, "Extinction Rebellion", which caused disruptions in transportation in the British capital.
Teen protesters staged Friday a stirring protest protesting political inaction on climate change near London 's Heathrow airport. (Report by Antony Paone, Bate Felix and Inti Landauro Writing by Richard Lough, Mark Heinrich's Edition)
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