Around sixty Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists dressed as clowns entered the TotalEnergies refinery in Donges (Loire-Atlantique) on Saturday March 23 late in the morning to denounce the oil giant’s “clowneries”, noted journalists from Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Dressed in checkered shirts and wearing red wigs or caps and pointy hats, they entered the site through a cut-out fence and left shortly after noon.
On a concrete tank about twenty meters high, the activists projected colorful paint and unfurled a large banner on which was written: “End your crimes and your clowning”. “Total has been knowingly polluting and putting us all in danger for a hundred years. We are here to make the climate emergency heard, on the site of a criminal enterprise,” said Louise, a 28-year-old member of the movement, interviewed by AFP.
The gendarmerie presents
Between the tanks, in the smell of gasoline, the activists danced while brandishing flags bearing the Extinction Rebellion logo. Several Total employees were on site late in the morning. The police were also present.
An international organization, Extinction Rebellion campaigns in particular for “recognition of the seriousness and urgency of current ecological crises” as well as for “the immediate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to achieve carbon neutrality in 2025, thanks to a reduction in consumption”.
The Donges platform, which covers nearly 350 hectares and where 650 employees work, is the second largest refinery in France, after that of Normandy, according to TotalEnergies. It has a processing capacity of 11 million tonnes of crude per year, for a storage capacity of 2.2 million cubic meters (crude oil and finished products).