Eco-activists project 'BAN FRACKING NOW' onto COP26 SEC building

This was the hilarious moment eco-activists engaged in a projected war of words with COP26 organisers - with the words 'go away' screened onto the conference centre.

Anti-fracking protesters beamed 40-foot words such as "BAN FRACKING NOW" and "CLEAN GAS IS A DIRTY LIE" onto the side of the SEC building in Finnieston, Glasgow last night (Tues).

But the official projectionist for the event fired back and beamed the words “go away” repeatedly onto the side of the building.

The activists - from Shale Must Fall, a confederation of anti-fracking groups - were undeterred and joked they wished “climate change would go away”.

Afterwards, the official projectionist even came out and congratulated the protesters.

Lorraine Inglis, 50, from London, travelled to Glasgow to protest COP26 talks which she fears are not doing enough to stop climate change.

Lorraine said: “It was quite amusing.

“The official projectionist in the hotel, after about 20 minutes projected their own images and we were wondering what was going on.

“After a while, they put stuff like ‘go away, go away’.

“It seemed like we were in competition with the official COP26 projectionists.

“I wish climate change would go away.

“I think the projectionists were actually quite fine about it but I think they just needed to put something on to stop our projections.”

“Fracking causes significant methane emissions and leaks.

“We projected six different images to call out the COP26 methane pledge and the hypocrisy of 27 new fossil gas infrastructures that are being put in place.

“We need all fossil fuels to stay in the ground.”

Unlike old fashioned slide projectors, digital models can be programmed straight from a laptop meaning new images can be beamed out as soon as the projectionist creates them.

Lorraine added: “You would be working from a laptop and you could write anything and move that image over to the projector.”

It comes after more than 100 countries signed up to a pledge to reduce methane emissions - a powerful pollutant - by 30 per cent by the year 2030.

But climate activists have said the target - not signed by some of the world’s biggest polluters including China, India, Russia and Australia - does not go far enough.

Jemma Kettlewell, an activist with Climate Camp Scotland who were also involved, said: “This is not terribly complicated: methane is a super-charged greenhouse gas that is already underground – all we have to do is leave it there.”

Campaigner Neal Huddon-Cossar, of the Gastivists Collective, also present, said: “The European Commission’s likely decision to approve up to 27 new fossil gas infrastructure projects shows the huge gap between political rhetoric at COP26 and policy back in Brussels.

“Fossil gas production leaks methane every step of the way: from fracking to freezing to shipping to piping – reducing those super-charged emissions is the low-hanging fruit for climate action.”