Extinction Rebellion announces second blockade of A10 ring road in Amsterdam next month

Extinction Rebellion (XR) will block the A10 ring road in Amsterdam near the former ING head office for the second time on February 24. The climate activists are protesting against ING’s continued financing of companies active in the fossil fuel industry, the group said on Wednesday.

After the first XR blockade on the A10 on December 30, ING said it intended to continue with its plan to phase out funding and services to the fossil fuel industry over the next 16 years. XR accused the Dutch bank of continuing to contribute to the worsening of the climate and ecological crisis instead of helping with a solution. “In recent weeks, we have been given a taste of the flooding that awaits us if large financial institutions like ING continue with fossil financing. Highways will then also be impassable,” said XR spokesperson Let de Jong.

Extinction Rebellion justified their decision to block the A10 again, saying that the first blockade caused “limited” inconvenience. They also said that they should be allowed to bring that section of the A10 to a halt because authorities closed the same stretch for eight days in the summer of 2022 due to road maintenance and work at the Amsterdam-Zuid rail station.

“And in 2025, 15 kilometers of the A10 will be closed for the celebration of Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary,” Extinction Rebellion argued.

The highway blockade will happen at noon on Saturday, February 2024.

The police detained almost all of the around 400 XR activists at the previous A10 blockade on December 30. They were transported away from the highway by bus and then released. The police described the blockade as life-threateningly dangerous.