CLIMATE activists in Scotland and across Europe took action against new North Sea oil and gas extraction on Saturday in a co-ordinated day of civil disobedience.

Campaigners under the banner of North Sea Fossil Free said that the governments of Britain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands are committing the whole world to dangerous levels of warming by permitting new fossil extraction infrastructure.

It follows a report by Oil Change International last week that none of the major North Sea fossil fuel-producing countries have plans to curtail drilling in alignment with the 1.5°C target under the Paris Agreement.

Across Scotland on Saturday, activists dropped banners in locations they said had strategic importance to the proposed development of new North Sea extractions, including a coast on the Moray Firth which would be devastated if there was an oil spill.

Extinction Rebellion (XR) Forres organised performances from the black-clad “oil slicks” performance troupe during the action.

Shetland Stop Rosebank dropped banners at Lerwick Harbour, the main port supporting the first phase of the proposed Rosebank oil and gas field.

And in Aberdeen, the offices of Equinor and Ithaca, which own 80 per cent and 20 per cent of Rosebank respectively, were targeted with banners which read: “North Sea Fossil Free,” “Stop Rosebank” and “Sea Knows No Borders.”

XR said in a statement: “These countries are interconnected through the exploitation of their shared waters, while the effects of these harmful initiatives are affecting the climate far beyond this northern corner of the world.

“Northern Europe’s oil and gas addiction is not only creating an ecological crisis in our own backyards, we are also fuelling and profiting from the global climate crisis with no regard for people in the most affected areas.”