Climate activists are protesting outside the office of Lloyd’s of London in the City this morning, dumping fake coal outside in front of the building as part of a campaign against insuring fossil fuel mining activities.

Activists from the Extinction Rebellion group are holding up banners with slogans such as “Climate Criminals” after they offloaded a pile of blackened boulders outside Lloyd’s building on Lime Street in the heart of the Square Mile.

Using a tipper truck to deposit the rubble outside the City insurer’s headquarters, the climate activists also placed placards reading “we are the dead canaries” and “do not insure the West Cumbria coal mine.”

Lloyd’s of London this morning (Source: XR)

Read more: Extinction Rebellion activists smash windows at HSBC in Canary Wharf

It comes as HSBC’s Canary Wharf headquarters were targeted yesterday, which saw its windows smashed. The bank said that it welcomed discussion on climate change but that it could not ‘condone vandalism’.

Extinction Rebellion has said that this morning’s demonstration formed part of Insurance Rebellion, a network of groups including Extinction Rebellion UK, protesting role of the insurance industry in fuelling the climate crisis.

The group confirmed the protest was meant to highlight Lloyd’s financing of polluting projects, like tar sands and coal mines – including the UK’s controversial Cumbria coal mine.

Source: XR

Read more: HSBC open to climate talks but cannot ‘condone vandalism’

“Every day that Lloyd’s continues to insure fossil fuel projects we move one step closer to climate breakdown,” Insurance Rebellion member called Harriet said, adding that “fossil fuel companies are destroying our planet, causing millions of people’s homes to be flooded, burnt to the ground in wildfires, and reclaimed by rising sea levels.”

“We have to stop fossil fuels now before the climate emergency becomes any worse. Fossil fuel companies can’t run without insurance, so let’s stop insuring them.”