八大工業國（G8）高峰會發表全球能源安全聲明，表態支持核能，引起民間團體不滿。抗議人士16日採取行動，在聖彼得堡主幹道涅夫斯基大街上，封鎖了峰會與會者下榻的旅館入口，隨後則遭到警方逮捕。參與示威行動的民眾來自聖彼得堡、莫斯科、明斯克、摩爾多瓦、華沙、基輔、加地夫和柏林等地，他們手上都拿著以俄文和英文書寫的「No G8！」海報，表示抗議。
俄國鎮暴警察逮捕所有的示威人士，共計37名，同時也淨空了馬路。警察以強制搬離等手段，驅離坐在街上的示威人士；有的手段示威者認為十分粗暴。
來自加拿大、法國、德國、義大利、日本、俄國、英國、美國和歐盟的領袖17日結束他們在史翠娜市為期3天的高峰會議。同一時間內，示威活動也同步上演。儘管近年來俄國政府逐漸加強對異議份子的壓制，示威者依然舉行了靜坐抗議。早在G8高峰會前，俄國當局已先發制人，逮捕200多名異議人士，並且阻止抗議群眾離開15日在聖彼得堡舉行的另一場會議。
大工業國針對全球能源安全所發表的聲明中，擁護核子能源做為處理全球氣候變遷的方法之一；然而環保人士警告，不能把核能當作降低碳排放、對抗全球氣候變遷的正向方案。示威人士在一項聲明中指出：「核子反應爐非常危險、極端昂貴、建造耗時數年，同時也需要大量的政府補助。」
示威人士表示，他們寧願拿這筆政府補助，透過更有效的能源方案、發展再生能源、復育受損的溼地和森林生態系統，以便更有效地減低碳排放。
與聖彼得堡的抗議群眾相結合，7月14和15日國際性的示威活動在美國、英國、委內瑞拉、紐西蘭、荷蘭和德國同時展開。
環保團體「北美大潮」（Rising Tide North America）在美國宣傳7月15日反氣候變遷和八大工業國抗議活動，該組織成員葛林（ Ethan Green）表示：「八大工業國僅代表世界全部人口的15%，但是他們卻製造全人類二氧化碳排放的45%。」
「因為需要能源，富裕國家大量燃燒煤礦、石油和天然氣，這些國家應該承擔起責任，不應該由貧窮的、原住民的和環境脆弱的社群承受流行傳染病、乾旱、洪水、融冰、海面上升、颶風和其他因為全球氣候變遷帶來的衝擊。」
Demonstrators blockading a main thoroughfare in St. Petersburg were arrested on Sunday as they protested the Group of Eight, G8, statement on Global Energy Security that includes support for nuclear power. They blocked the entrance of a hotel on the Nevsky Prospekt which was used by participants of the G8 summit. Protesters from St. Petersburg, Moscow, Minsk, Chishinau, Warsaw, Kiev, Cardiff, and Berlin took part in the demonstration, displaying posters saying "No G8!" in Russian and English.
Russian riot police arrested all of the 37 activists and cleared the roadway. Some of the activists sat down and had to be carried away, others were forced to leave the street in what they said was a brutal manner.
The protesters staged their demonstration to coincide with the G8 summit at Strelna where the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union wound up their three day meeting today.
The sit-in took place despite the growing suppression of dissent by the Russian government in recent years. Russian authorities preemptively arrested over 200 activists before the G8 summit and forbade protesters from leaving an alternative conference in St. Petersburg held on Saturday.
The G8 statement on global energy security advocates nuclear energy as one way to address global climate change, yet environmental activists warn that nuclear energy cannot be considered a positive way to reduce carbon emissions and combat global climate change.
"Nuclear reactors are dangerous, extremely expensive, take many years to build, and require massive government subsidies," the demonstrators said in a statement.
The activists say they would like this funding to be used to quickly reduce carbon emissions through energy efficiency measures, development of renewable energy sources, and restoration of damaged wetland and forest ecosystems.
In coalition with the protests in St. Petersburg, international demonstrations occurred on July 14 and 15 in numerous cities in the United States, the United Kingdom, Venezuela, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Germany.
"The G8 countries represent just 15 percent of the world's population but they produce 45 percent of all human emissions of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas," said Ethan Green of Rising Tide North America, a group that publicized the July 15 protests against climate change and the G8 in the United States.
"Poor, indigenous and environmentally vulnerable communities should not bear the brunt of disease epidemics, droughts, floods, melting ice, rising oceans, hurricanes, and other catastrophes caused by the global climate change that rich countries are responsible for due to our prodigious burning of coal, oil and gas for energy," said Green.
