Climate Activists Disrupt IMF Conference Featuring Federal Reserve Chair Powell
On November 9, 2023, climate activists disrupted the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) annual research conference on “Global Interdependence” in Washington, U.S. The event was attended by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and Israeli central bank Governor Amir Yaron. The disruption took place as Powell and Yaron were on stage, prompting security to usher Powell away from the stage.
The activists shouted “End fossil finance” as they took over the stage, causing a disruption that lasted about two minutes before security intervened and removed the protesters. Yaron remained seated throughout the disruption.
This incident marked the second time in weeks that an event attended by Powell was disrupted by climate activists, following a similar disruption in New York on October 24. Despite the interruption, Powell later returned to the stage and resumed his speech, and his prepared remarks were published on time.
The IMF confirmed that security officers escorted the protesters out of the building, and the event resumed shortly afterward. The event was open to the public, with registration and photo identification required for attendance.
A spokesperson for the Fed declined to provide a comment on the incident.
Reporting on the disruption was provided by Howard Schneider and Andrea Shalal, with additional reporting by Costas Pitas. The article was written by Ann Saphir and edited by Mark Porter, Andrea Ricci, Paul Simao, and Deepa Babington.
The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles were applied in the reporting of this incident.