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Environment activists end day-long protest on New Zealand parliament roof

Xinhua, June 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

Environment activists ended a 10-hour standoff with police Thursday, during which they occupied the roof of New Zealand's Parliament building to protest the government's lack of action against climate change.

Radio New Zealand reported the day-long protest ended at about 5 p.m. local time when the four Greenpeace campaigners climbed down of their own accord.

Police officers escorted them to a waiting police van and charged each of the protesters with trespass, said the report.

The four had slipped past security and climbed to the roof of Parliament House where they installed eight solar panels just below the roofline and unfurled a large banner featuring Prime Minister John Key.

"Cut pollution, create jobs? Yeah, nah," said the banner text, referring to the government's failure to act on climate change, which had seen pollution increase and New Zealand miss out on creating thousands of clean energy jobs, said a statement from Greenpeace.

The activists used the solar panels to power phones and connect to the Internet to communicate with people around the world.

Greenpeace New Zealand chief policy advisor Nathan Argent said recent floods, which have caused millions of dollars in damage around the country, were the latest extreme weather events and showed the need for immediate climate action.

"John Key has had seven years to take climate change seriously and to take action, but instead he's failed to introduce a single piece of law to reduce climate pollution. Pollution is only growing and it will cost our economy billions in the future," Argent said in the statement.

Key's office issued a statement saying the protest was a security matter that the police and parliamentary security services were dealing with.

"People always have the right to peaceful protest and are free to do so, as long as they don't break the law or put anyone in harm's way," said the statement.

Greenpeace claims the government's own figures show the increase in New Zealand's total emissions by 2020 will be almost 30 percent worse than in 1990, but the government has encouraged offshore oil and gas drilling rather than promote clean energy. Endi