UK: Activists protest finance giant BlackRock's environmental impact

W/S Extinction Rebellion protesters outside financial firm BlackRock, London
W/S Photographers
M/S Protesters holding posters
M/S Protester holding poster reading "Stop Ecocide"
C/U Posters reading "Stop Ecocide" and "Earth protectors"
M/S Protester holding flag, police
SOT, Alastair Kenneil, filmmaker and activist: "These huge financial organisations, like BlackRock, are part of the problem, they don't seem to acknowledge that fossil fuels are not the way forward and they are continuing to invest in extractive industries, in exploration and artificially cheap fossil fuels which are subsidised by Western governments around the world. We have to turn this around. And the news came through today that the European Investment Bank will no longer invest in fossil fuels which is a huge step forward."
M/S Police
W/S Police officers standing by, protesters chanting
SOT, Chris Parish, activist: "We're outside the London headquarters of BlackRock. BlackRock is the biggest asset investment manager in the world, it's got about I think it's 7 or 8 trillion dollars in funds, it's the biggest fossil fuel funder on the planet. I mean it's more than countries, I think the assets are more than the GDP of Japan. That's the level of what it does. And it's the biggest basically funder of coal in the whole world. It beats everyone. It's bigger than any bank in the world but it sort of hides away down here you wouldn't think there's much going on. But actually this is what enables deforestation of the Amazon."
M/S Man taking picture
M/S Extinction rebellion flag
M/S Protesters
W/S Blackrock entrance
SCRIPT
Activists from the environmental group Extinction Rebellion gathered outside the London offices of finance giant BlackRock on Friday, to protest its investments in the fossil fuel industry and in companies contributing to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
Holding posters and waving the group's hourglass flag, activists threw ashes in front of the company's UK headquarters as a demonstration of what is being done with the world's largest rainforest.
"[BlackRock] is the biggest basically funder of coal in the whole world. It beats everyone. It's bigger than any bank in the world but it sort of hides away down here you wouldn't think there's much going on. But actually this is what enables deforestation of the Amazon," said activist Chris Parish.
Friends of the Earth, an international network of environmental organisations, has labelled BlackRock the "world's largest investor in deforestation" in a report published in 2019. It has also been criticised for being one of the largest investor in fossil fuels in the world, being among the top three shareholders in six of the seven largest oil and gas companies in the world, and among the top 10 shareholders in seven of the 10 biggest coal producers.