Activists protested against a motor company's lobbying tactics outside an Enfield showroom this week.
Roads Rebellion, an arm of Extinction Rebellion organised a “die-in” event at Jemca Toyota Enfield in Lumina Way on Monday June 13.
Members of the group lay down as if dead to demonstrate the potential fate of the world following the climate crisis.
According to the protesters, despite Toyota’s relatively good environmental reputation, the company lobbies against climate action and its hybrid cars are not enough to address the scale of the crisis.
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A spokesperson for Roads Rebellion said: “We want to call them out on what they are doing behind the scenes.
“They are actually up there with Exxon and Chevron as the worst for the environment.
“A die in shows what is going to happen, people will be dead on the floor if we don't take urgent and radical action.”
The “die-in” protest involved activists entering the outdoor area of the showroom wearing Toyota logo masks with slogans and banners before playing dead by the cars as a demonstration of the consequences of environmental collapse.
Toyota is currently committed to ‘Environmental Challenge 2050’ which includes six mid term targets to be met by 2030.
The targets include selling 1 million zero-emission cars and reducing Toyota plant emissions by 35%.
However, Roads Rebellion points to reports from the Times newspaper in April that Toyota threatened to shut its UK manufacturing unless the Government backtracked on committing to banning new gasoline and diesel cars from 2030.
The spokesperson added: "Toyota is pushing more and more cars onto our roads when we must be investing in the most energy efficient forms of mobility: public transport and active travel.
“We need to talk about reducing car use in the media and in Government.
“Toyota should lead on this and lead on the alternative solutions as they like to have an image where they pretend to do one thing but actually do another behind the scenes with the Government.
“Corporate giants cannot threaten democratic decisions to take urgent climate action.”
Road Rebellion say that we need to move away from a society based around cars and towards public transport.
Toyota declined to comment on the protest.
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