Greenpeace solar protest on roof of BP headquarters

Greenpeace has brought a legal challenge after ministers opened a new round of oil and gas licensing (Jane Barlow/PA) (PA Archive)

Greenpeace tried to turn the heat up on the energy debate yesterday when activists placed 25 solar panels on the roof of BP Exploration's headquarters. The protesters dressed in orange climbed up the lower part of the building in Aberdeen and laid the panels and two flags around a sign saying "BP Solar not oil".

The environmental pressure group is calling on the company to switch pounds 100m from oil exploration to its subsidiary BP Solar. But a spokesman for BP Exploration dismissed the environmentalists' challenge as a "piecemeal suggestion" and said that as long as there was a demand for oil in the UK, BP would try to meet that demand. He said: "These issues can only be decided by Government and consumers. The world has a demand for oil and the UK oil industry is one of our most successful industries.