Activists from the environmental organization Greenpeace wrapped the private home of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in Yorkshire in 200 meters of fabric on Thursday.

This is in protest against the British government’s energy policy, writes the British branch of Greenpeace on the social media X, formerly known as Twitter.

A picture posted by the group on X shows two people standing in front of Sunak’s mansion with a banner.

It reads: ”Rishi Sunak - oil profit or our future?”.

In the background, the mansion is wrapped in black fabric. Four people are sitting on the roof.

According to Sky News, the activists climbed onto the roof using ladders and climbing ropes. From the roof, they rolled large pieces of fabric down the sides of the building.

The Prime Minister was not on the grounds when the action began.

According to a spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office, the police were called.

The reason for the action is Sunak’s support for a major expansion of oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, aiming to grant 100 new oil and gas licenses off the Scottish coast.

”We make no apologies for taking the right approach to ensuring our energy security by using the resources we have at home so that we never have to rely on aggressors like Putin for energy.”

”We are also investing in renewable energy and our efforts are supporting thousands of UK jobs,” Downing Street 10 said, according to Sky News.

In 2019, the UK adopted the goal of going carbon neutral by 2050.

However, the government has been criticized for some of the decisions made in recent years.

A statement from Greenpeace said on Thursday that ”Sunak has also indicated that he will approve drilling at Rosebank”.

This is one of the largest undeveloped oil and gas fields off the UK.

”The controversial move goes against numerous warnings from the government’s own climate advisers, the International Energy Agency and the UN Secretary General that any new fossil fuel project risks pushing the world into the danger zone of over 1.5 degrees of warming,” it reads.

According to the International Energy Agency, there should be no new oil and gas projects whatsoever if global climate goals are to be met.

Rishi Sunak does not believe that the oil drilling plan will change the UK’s climate ambitions.

”Even when we reach zero emissions by 2050, a quarter of our energy will have to come from oil and gas. But there are some who would rather it come from hostile states than from supplies we have at home,” he has said.

(Translated using DeepL with additional editing by Simon Øst Vejbæk)