OSLO (Reuters) – Norwegian oil major Equinor will report Greenpeace to police after the environmental group protested at the home of its CEO Anders Opedal by dumping debris from recent floods in Brazil in his garden on Wednesday.
The protest tactic is new in Norway, where protesters traditionally refrain from targeting the homes of individuals.
The protesters placed a refrigerator, a crib and some battered children’s toys in the executive’s garden in Sandnes, western Norway, Greenpeace said in a statement.
Pictures from local media also showed sofas, chairs, sandals, a cupboard and a biking helmet at the property. Protesters carried banners with slogans such as “Anders Opedal you are responsible” and “climate justice delivery”.
Equinor has been exploring and producing oil and gas in Brazil for two decades. It also has solar farms in the country.
“This is an unauthorised action on private property. As a company, we strongly distance ourselves from this behaviour,” a company spokesperson said.
“We take this action seriously and it will be reported to the police,” the person said, adding that neither Opedal nor his family were at home when the protest started.
Greenpeace said it had dumped the items because Opedal was “one of the climate crisis’ major drivers”.
“I know it’s personal to show up at Opedal’s home, but it’s also personal to lose loved ones, flee your home and lose everything you own due to the destruction of the climate crisis,” Brazilian Greenpeace activist Claiton Wuaden Junior said in the statement.
Record floods in June in southern Brazil killed over 170 people and displaced half a million people. Climate change made the floods twice as likely, scientists say.
Brazil is the third-largest country in Equinor’s portfolio, after Norway and the United States, representing 16% of its assets as of Sept. 30, a company report showed.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo; Editing by Mark Potter)
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