Just Stop Oil activists walk free, blast government’s ‘unimaginable evil’

On 11 September, a jury found three Just Stop Oil activists not guilty of public nuisance. It follows a protest in 2022 on the M25 in which they protested government plans to licence 100 new oil and gas projects. The group has highlighted that this decision went against “expert advice”

Just Stop Oil: not guilty

The cleared defendants were Sam Holland, Rachel Payne, and Isabel Rock. Their trial took place over five days, and the jury’s verdict was unanimous.

In a press release, Just Stop Oil detailed the justification presented by each defendant:

Sam Holland argued that he had wanted to prevent harm. He had read academic papers which pointed to catastrophic consequences for humanity from burning fossil fuels, including food system collapse.

Rachel Payne explained that she took action because she was fearful for her children and grandchildren about government inaction on the climate crisis. She highlighted the government breaking its 2015 climate agreements by offering new fossil fuel licences.

Isabel Rock said that she felt a duty to look after people younger than herself and that the climate crisis is going to touch every single part of their lives. Taking action was something she weighed up very seriously and that as a self employed person, she knew how hard it was for people to earn money and to get by. However she felt that if they could see some of these agreed facts about the seriousness of the climate crisis, she hoped they would understand.

The jury found these to be ‘reasonable excuses’ for the protest, despite the disruption to traffic.

In closing

In his closing speech, defendant Sam Holland said:

We brought evidence on the largest evil committed in human history: the continued drilling and burning of oil and gas in full knowledge that large parts of humanity will be killed. The prosecution has said that these are beliefs. They are not beliefs. This is not a cause. This is not another ‘issue’. This is billions of deaths. Not according to me, according to the world’s leading scientists. These are the facts. If we hit 3C of warming by 2050, there could be four billion human deaths. Half of the world’s current population.

What was the UK government doing? It was issuing over 100 new licences for companies to explore and drill oil and gas in the North Sea. In the knowledge of everything I’ve just said, which is public knowledge and has been known for decades, the government was still wanting to drill. Unimaginable evil. We all talked about how we had extensively tried other methods for making change. Signing petitions, emailing MPs, going on conventional marches… So we had to turn to disruptive action.’

It is causing disruption that pressures the government to act – civil disobedience works by the very fact that it is disruptive. I feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility to do everything I can to stop this from happening. Once you learn about this stuff you can’t unlearn it. We have a very narrow window of time now to change the course of history. This is what I have tried to do by taking this action.

Following the verdict, Rachel Payne said:

I thank the members of the Jury deeply for their ‘common sense’ verdict — they were actually permitted to hear the several climate related agreed facts, which were read out to them, about the severe threats the present emergency poses to our world and they listened!

I thank the prosecution for agreeing to those facts following earlier trials I attended in which the ‘whole truth’ was repeatedly denied to the Jury. I thank the Judge for allowing them to decide that we “more likely than not” had a reasonable excuse for what we did.

In my statement to the police, I urgently expressed my fears for my family and world and my hopes for an ‘eco-U- turn’. With this acquittal, I feel this may be closer to being made possible. The tide may well be turning if the agreed facts on climate, allowed in this trial, can become widely known and acted upon internationally.

New oil

The group’s campaign ended on 27 March 2025. Just Stop Oil said this was because it won its original demand for the UK to greenlight no new oil and gas projects. As reported by the Canary, however, the UK government is currently considering allowing drilling at the Rosebank oil field:

Rosebank is the largest undeveloped oil field in the North Sea. If developed, it would release an amount of emissions equal to those produced by all 28 low-income countries in the world.

In January, a court overturned the 2023 approval of Rosebank, deeming it unlawful. The UK Government will now decide to re-approve or reject the field, once owner Equinor has re-applied for permission to develop the field.

The article also noted:

The UK public is predicted to cover over 80% of the costs of developing Rosebank, due to generous tax reliefs that allow oil and gas companies to write off most of their development costs before profits are taxed. Norwegian state-owned oil company, Equinor – which owns the majority stake in Rosebank – is expected to profit up to £1.5 billion, along with its partner, Ithaca.

Despite some tax income from profits of Rosebank – most of which would come after 2030 – the UK Government is expected to incur a net loss of over £250 million.

The Norwegian government has a sovereign wealth fund that is largely funded by state-owned companies like Equinor, currently worth over $1.3 trillion that is reinvested towards the country’s public environmental, social and governance issues.

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