Two men from Staab Oljeletinga sat on a pedestrian crossing in Chogndal on Wednesday and delivered a clear message to the crown prince:
They are demanding that the government declare an immediate halt to all exploration for oil on the Norwegian continental shelf.
Hit the pitch
But the campaign did not go as planned. As the climate activists sat down, the police immediately drove the prince’s car into the opposite lane.
– We wanted to stop him completely. The Crown Prince and his entourage only took the opposite route. It was a great shame. We want to tell the crown prince about our message, Frida Steinbach (29), one of the two activists, tells Talkbladet.
– Reduced activity
Spontaneous action
The Crown Prince was visiting a university college in western Norway this morning to talk about climate change and climate adaptation.
Steinbuck tells Talkblade that the move was partly spontaneous, in reaction to news the same day that Great Britain was approving the development of the Rosebank stadium outside Shetland.
Rosebank is owned by Equinor, which is owned by the Norwegian government.
The group could not mobilize enough people to participate in the campaign.
Disobedience: Two members of the Stop Oljeledinga group sat on the road to block the Crown Prince and his entourage. Photo: Oljeletinga Stop
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I hope he saw it
When asked if he believed Crown Prince Haakon had gotten the message to the two campaigners, Steinbach wasn’t sure. Still, she has hope.
– I believe. We have an observant crown prince, so I think he noticed we were sitting when he looked through the window, she says.
After the crown prince and his entourage left, the activists continued their disobedience for a few minutes.
– Incredibly sad
In a press release, they say they want to reach out to Crown Prince Haakon as he said a year ago that he was “cautiously optimistic” about tackling the climate crisis. The Crown Prince said this during the ONS Energy Conference in Stavanger in August 2022.
– I choose to be cautiously optimistic. Not because I have to, but because there’s a good reason. He said that many promising technologies are going to be presented here in a few days.
Staab Oljeletinga wanted to challenge Crown Prince Haakon on how he could be optimistic when Norway was in the process of expanding its oil industry both inside and outside Norway.
Dagbladet contacted Guri Varpe, press manager at the castle, who says he has no comment on the case.
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