This morning, four activists were arrested outside the Treasury department in London after spraying the front of the building with red paint in protest at renewed licensing of fossil fuel infrastructure projects in the UK.

Rishi Sunak’s recently declared ‘windfall tax’ actually encourages new fossil fuel projects because new investment attracts a 90% tax return – but this doesn’t apply to investment in renewables.

Just before the Jubilee long weekend, Kwasi Kwarteng slipped out the announcement of a green light for Shell to start exploiting the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea, and dozens more fossil fuel licenses are in the pipeline.

This is all happening after the severest warnings yet from scientists and international bodies. Even the International Energy Agency has said that developed nations should not be making any new investment in fossil fuels, and the IPCC recently announced that if we cut emissions in half by 2030 across the globe we will STILL only have a 66% chance of keeping climate heating within the 1.5 degree target.

Today’s action was organised by Just Stop Oil, who are demanding the same thing as the United Nations Secretary General and the head of the International Energy Agency – no new fossil fuel infrastructure investment.