Who are Just Stop Oil and what are their goals?

Just Stop Oil are in the news again after disrupting the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield.

Environmental activists poured a packet of orange powder paint over a table on Monday evening during a match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry, resulting in it being suspended for 24 hours.

Another tried to glue herself to the other table of the other game taking place in the Crucible Theatre between Mark Allen and Fan Zhengyi, but was stopped by the referee.

Following the protest, Just Stop Oil issued a statement: “At around 7:20pm, two Just Stop Oil supporters disrupted the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, interrupting play.

“The pair proceeded to cover the tables in orange powder paint before being removed by security and arrested.

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“They are demanding that the Government immediately stop all new UK fossil fuel projects and are calling on UK sporting institutions to step into civil resistance against the Government’s genocidal policies.”

It is not the first time the group has been in the news. Indeed, they have developed a considerable history of protest in the short time they have been around.

Below we explain who is involved in the group and what they hope to achieve.

What is Just Stop Oil?

Just Stop Oil is a protest group with links to Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain.

Founded in April 2022, the group describes itself as "a coalition of groups working together to ensure the government commits to halting new fossil fuel licensing and production."

Its website says: “Allowing the extraction of new oil and gas resources in the UK is an obscene and genocidal policy that will kill our children and condemn humanity to oblivion. It just has to stop."

The group wants the government to halt new licences for the exploration of oil and other fossil fuels in the UK and is calling for renewable energy investment and for better building insulation to avoid energy waste.

According to its website, it is funded mostly by the Climate Emergency Fund - a US network set up in 2019 to fund climate activism.

What major protests have they been involved in?

Just Stop Oil, like Extinction Rebellion, say they are willing to use "non-violent civil resistance" to make their point in public spaces.

To that end, they have hit headlines by engaging in a number of stunts.

In one high-profile stunt in 2022, two members of the activist group went to London’s National Gallery and threw cans of tomato soup on Vincent Van Gough’s world-famous Sunflowers painting, before gluing themselves to the wall.

Another time, four protestors were arrested after they smeared chocolate cake over the waxwork of King Charles III at the tourist attraction Madame Tussauds.

They have also caused traffic disruption by blocking roads.

Here is a list of their protests in full.

What controversies have they caused?

Aside from ruining snooker matches, causing significant police resource to be used and blocking roads, the group courts controversy for claiming their arrests were comparable to Jews being persecuted during the Holocaust.

In November 2022 they tweeted:

Home secretary Suella Braverman has consistently spoken out against them and has accused them of being part of a "Guardian-reading, tofu-eating, ‘wokerati’, dare I say the anti-growth coalition".

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