Just Stop Oil (JSO) is a British environmental activist group primarily focused on the issue of human-caused climate change. The group aims to force the British government to commit to ending new fossil fuel licensing and production using civil resistance, nonviolent direct action, traffic obstruction, and publicity stunts.
The group was founded in February 2022 and began protesting at English oil terminals in April 2022. The group has received criticism for its disruptive and often illegal methods of activism. In response to tactics used by the group, successive British governments introduced or increased criminal penalties for non-violent direct action, which resulted in numerous members being given prison sentences.
On 27 March 2025, the group announced its intention to end active campaigning and focus on support for activists in prison and in court.
Contents
Views and methods
Just Stop Oil opposes the United Kingdom government granting new fossil fuel licensing and production agreements; on its website, it calls for the government to stop all future consents and licensing agreements related to the development, exploration, and production of fossil fuels in the country. The group supports investment in renewable energy, and says that buildings need to have better thermal insulation to avoid wasting energy.
The group describes itself as decentralised and non-hierarchical, with activists in the group operating in autonomous blocs that share resources but have no formal leadership.
The group favours nonviolent direct action and civil resistance and follows an approach of general social disruption, similar to the methods of climate activist groups Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain, although favouring cultural institutions as protest targets.
In January 2024, at a meeting at the Old Print Works in Birmingham, Just Stop Oil was constituted as one of four groups under a central coordinating group called Umbrella. The other three groups under 'Umbrella' are: Assemble, Robin Hood, and Youth Demand.
Funding
Just Stop Oil reports that all their funding is through donations, with the group accepting both traditional currency and cryptocurrencies. In April 2022, it was reported that Just Stop Oil's primary source of funding was donations from the US-based Climate Emergency Fund. Through that fund, a notable donor to the group has been Aileen Getty, a descendant of the Getty family which founded the Getty Oil company. In response, the Climate Emergency Fund stated that Getty did not work in the fossil fuel industry herself.
In October 2023, green energy industrialist Dale Vince, who had donated over £340,000 to Just Stop Oil, announced he no longer planned to fund Just Stop Oil. He said: "under the current government, protest cannot work. I would go so far as to say that anything that could feed the Tories' culture-war narrative is counter-productive".
Protests
2022
On 13 March, four activists wearing 'Just Stop Oil' T-shirts disrupted the 75th British Academy Film Awards, at the Royal Albert Hall, in London..
On 20 March, two supporters attempted to disrupt a football match at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium in London, but were intercepted. On 21 March, one supporter stopped play at a football match at Goodison Park in Liverpool when he ran onto the pitch and cable tied himself to a goalpost by his neck. The following day, one supporter briefly made it onto the pitch at Molineux Stadium in Wolverhampton. On 24 March, six supporters attempted to disrupt a match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in north London. All were removed quickly, but the match was briefly stopped.
Beginning on 1 April, activists carried out England-wide blockades of ten critical oil facilities, intending to cut off the supply of petrol to South East England. They claimed they were inspired by the UK lorry drivers' protests in 2000 that paralysed petrol distribution. On 14 April, Just Stop Oil activists stopped and surrounded an oil tanker in London, causing congestion on the M4 motorway. On 15 April, supporters targeted Kingsbury, Navigator and Grays oil terminals, blockading roads and climbing onto oil tankers. The same day it was reported that Navigator Thames, ExxonMobil, and Valero had secured civil injunctions to prevent protest at their oil terminals. On 19 April, Just Stop Oil suspended its actions against fuel distribution for a week in the hope of action from the government. On 28 April, about 35 Just Stop Oil supporters sabotaged petrol pumps at two M25 motorway service stations (Cobham services in Surrey and Clacket Lane services in Kent).
On 3 July, a group of Just Stop Oil supporters walked onto the track at the 2022 British Grand Prix, at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England, after the race had been suspended due to a crash on the opening lap and sat down on the asphalt. They were arrested by police. Formula One drivers Sergio Pérez, Lewis Hamilton, and Carlos Sainz said they supported the protestors' cause but that they should not have put themselves at risk of physical harm. F1 president Stefano Domenicali criticised the protesting method and did not comment on the cause. Before the event, the Northamptonshire Police warned they had "creditable intelligence" that a group of protesters were planning to disrupt the race and potentially attempt a track invasion and that the protest would be related to environmental issues, but the warning did not mention Just Stop Oil by name.
2023
On 17 April, during evening sessions at the 2023 World Snooker Championship, two protesters attempted to climb onto two tables at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, disrupting first-round matches between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry and between Mark Allen and Fan Zhengyi. One protester climbed onto the table where Milkins was playing Perry and spread an orange powder on it, halting play on that table for the night after efforts to remove the powder failed. Another protester failed to climb onto the table where Allen was playing Fan, after being restrained by referee Olivier Marteel. Both protesters were arrested. The match between Fan and Allen resumed after a 45-minute delay and the match between Milkins and Perry was rescheduled to begin again the following day.
Protesters forced a stoppage at the 27 May Rugby Premiership final between Saracens and Sale Sharks, in Twickenham, west London, by invading the pitch and throwing orange paint powder on the field. Two men were later charged by the Metropolitan Police with aggravated trespass.
On 1 June, prior to the eve of the one-off Test match between England and Ireland, the England cricket team bus was briefly halted by Just Stop Oil protestors during the team's way when they were set to reach the Lord's ground. England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow shared images on Instagram of Just Stop Oil activists who had disrupted England's team bus. On 28 June, the second Test of the 2023 Ashes series between England and Australia at Lord's was briefly interrupted by Just Stop Oil protestors who ran onto the outfield with bags of orange powder, but were stopped before reaching the wicket, one being carried off by Bairstow. Three protestors were arrested.
On 5 July, two protesters interrupted a tennis match at the 136th Wimbledon Championships by throwing orange confetti and jigsaw pieces onto the court.
On 17 July, one of the protesters who had disrupted play during the World Snooker Championship attempted to disrupt their own graduation ceremony at University of Exeter along with another individual.
On 21 July, during the 151st Open Championship at Hoylake, four protesters attempted to disrupt play, by running onto the 17th hole, setting off a flare, and throwing orange powder onto the green. They were later arrested by police.
2024
In January 2024, the group announced the creation of a central coordinating group called Umbrella. The four groups under 'Umbrella' included Just Stop Oil, Assemble, Robin Hood, and Youth Demand. Many of the former members of the student wing of Just Stop Oil left to found Youth Demand.
On 22 February, Labour and Co-operative Party politician Stella Creasy wrote an opinion piece in The Guardian in response to Just Stop Oil co-founder Sarah Lunnon's opinion piece in The Guardian justifying picketing at the homes of Labour Party Members of Parliament (MPs) in an effort to convince Labour MPs to end Tory oil and gas policies. Creasy warned that Just Stop Oil's intimidation tactics will normalise violence and harassment towards politicians and undermine democracy.
On 27 March, Just Stop Oil posted a video on Twitter showing protester Phoebe Plummer breaking her bail by delivering a letter to what the organisation claimed was the house of Labour Party politician Wes Streeting. Streeting replied directly to the video stating that the home that Plummer visited and delivered the letter to was not his house.
On 10 May, two women targeted the Magna Carta in the British Library. Reverend Dr Sue Parfitt, 82, and Judy Bruce, an 85-year-old retired biology teacher, attempted to break the glass container around the document with a hammer and chisel. They then held up a sign stating, "The government is breaking the law". The documents themselves were undamaged.
On 7 June, two women protestors sprayed orange powder paint into the air from within the crowd gathered outside of Chester Cathedral for the wedding of Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster and Olivia Henson. Cheshire Police arrested a 69-year-old woman from Manchester and a 73-year-old woman from Suffolk for using devices to project the powder paint near the entrance of the cathedral as the couple made their way to the car.
On 27 September, hours after the sentencing of Plummer and Holland for their actions in 2022, three more activists from the group again attempted to douse the Sunflowers collection of paintings in coloured liquid and were arrested for their actions.
In 2024, Just Stop Oil throwing orange paint onto three of Stonehenge's stones. According to Just Stop Oil's website, the paint was made of an "orange cornflour" that would wash away in the rain. Several bystanders shouted at and attempted to stop the activists. The two activists who defaced the structure were promptly arrested by Wiltshire Police. The paint was removed the following day with an air blower, and English Heritage reported that there was "no visible damage".
2025
On 13 January two activists used chalk paint to mark the tombstone of Charles Darwin in Westminster Abbey with "1.5 is dead". They were subsequently arrested by the Metropolitan Police. The message refers to the news in December 2024 that the Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed that 2024 was the first year that the average temperature exceeded 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.
One of the activists said that "We've done it on Darwin's grave specifically because he would be turning in that grave because of the sixth mass extinction taking place now. I believe he would approve because he was a good scientist and he would be following the science, and he would be as upset as us with the government for ignoring the science."
A further two activists were charged with aggravated trespass on 29 January after taking to the stage and disrupting a performance of The Tempest at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on 27 January; the pair had held up a banner reading "over 1.5 degrees is a global shipwreck" whilst the actors were escorted from the stage by theatre staff.
End of Active Campaigning
On 27 March 2025, the group announced that it was "hanging up the hi-vis" to end active campaigning, with future actions by supporters likely to take place under a new banner. While it no longer actively campaigns, it continues to exist to support activists on trial or in prison as a result of its actions despite its disbandment.
The group sought to claim victory for its campaign, stating that it had achieved its aim to end new licences for fossil fuel extraction within the United Kingdom, while denying that the dissolution was due to increased incarceration of the group's supporters. The group's claims of a victory were scrutinised by others however, with co-founder Roger Hallam having previously acknowledged the group only made a "marginal" impact and other members acknowledging that the climate crisis had gotten worse, leading to BBC News' climate editor Justin Rowlatt to conclude the group's wider aim of ending fossil fuel production had "manifestly not been achieved". An examination of the group by Novara Media stated meanwhile that despite the claims otherwise the group had struggled to recruit activists once the prospect of imprisonment became increasingly likely, and that views from other environmental groups was more mixed with some taking the view that JSO's actions had instead impeded efforts by the recently elected Labour government to block new licences.
In October 2025, The i Paper published accusations of a "toxic culture" regarding sexual assault within JSO, detailing that at least five male members of the group "have been accused of targeting and abusing young female staff and volunteers”.
In late 2025, a group named Take Back Power was established by people previously linked to JSO. The group's aim was reported to be on "combating inequality, protecting democracy and stemming the rise of fascism in the UK".
2026
After over a year of being disbanded. The group re-established itself with a protest outside of Parliament during Andy Burnham’s first Prime Minister’s Questions. A spokesman for Just Stop Oil stated that the protest was timed to coincide with the Prime Minister’s Questions as Burnham was “deciding whether to have more oil and gas projects”.