By Victor Jack
LONDON -Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg joined protesters at a noisy demonstration outside the London offices of Standard Chartered bank on Friday to demand that financial institutions stop funding the extraction of fossil fuels.
The high-profile global climate protester appeared briefly on the streets of the City of London, the financial heart of the British capital which is home to some of the world's biggest banks and financial firms.
Placards at the demonstration said "Keep It In The Ground" and "Can You Breathe Money?".
The 18-year-old was joined in the narrow streets of the British capital by around 20 international climate activists from countries including Namibia, Philippines and Samoa who are due to travel with Thunberg to the United Nations climate summit, or COP26, in Glasgow.
Mobbed by television crews and photographers, she stood alongside other young protesters before leaving shortly afterwards.
Thunberg told the BBC in an interview that they wanted banks to "stop funding our destruction", because so many still direct funding to companies such as oil groups.
She has recently berated politicians for 30 years of "blah, blah, blah" rather than acting to curb global warming.
Campaigners were due to gather in other cities including New York and Frankfurt to argue that big financial institutions should stop pumping money into the extraction of fossil fuels.