‘Tell Glasgow the Truth’: Extinction Rebellion Scotland disrupt City Council meeting about Climate Emergency

• Extinction Rebellion interrupted a key Glasgow City Council meeting this morning, denouncing their proposed climate action plan as ‘too little, too late’.

• Protestors demanded that the Council ‘Tell Glasgow the truth’ about Climate Breakdown, achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and set up a Climate Citizens Assembly in Glasgow.

The action took place during a meeting of the City Administration Committee which was due to make a final decision about the Council’s action plan to tackle the Climate Emergency. Three members of Extinction Rebellion Glasgow stood up in the Council Chamber for several minutes holding messages saying: ‘Too little, too late’, ‘Climate Citizens Assembly now!’ and ‘Zero emissions by 2025’.

In February this year, two members of Extinction Rebellion Glasgow interrupted a committee meeting to demand urgent action on the Climate and Ecological Emergency and were invited by the chair to join the City Council Climate Emergency Working Group.

Daryl Tayar, who has been representing Extinction Rebellion on the Working Group commented: “We have been sitting on this committee for months and we are frustrated with the slow pace of change. The City Council declared a Climate Emergency on 16 May this year but they are keeping it very quiet. A recent survey shows that 91% of Glaswegians don’t know about the declaration. Why is the Council doing so little, so slowly and so quietly, when this is a global and local emergency?” [1]

“We are here because we are angry, because we are grieving, because we are terrified. Our city faces the possibility of serious food shortages and flooding within the next 2-10 years unless we all join together and hold the council and the government to account. The Council’s proposed plan is too little, too late. Thousands are already dying globally as a result of climate change. We need net zero emissions by 2025 and we need a Climate Citizens Assembly here in Glasgow on how we’re going to achieve this”. [3] [4] [5]

Ends.

Notes

[1] Informal survey conducted by Extinction Rebellion on Buchanan Street and in the West End on 7th and 8th September 2019 among residents of Glasgow: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XZ7qEtFPDhxQLQrsEGR22ae95SBWLCpGCrV0uirrAtk

About Extinction Rebellion Scotland

Extinction Rebellion Scotland is a non-violent direct-action movement formed to take urgent action in the face of climate emergency and ecological catastrophe, as part of the global justice movement.

Our demands, issued as a Declaration of Rebellion to the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government on 24 November 2018, are as follows:

1. That the Scottish government tell the truth about the climate and wider ecological emergency, acknowledge and reverse any policies that help drive the climate crisis, and commit to enabling a rapid and just transition to a sustainable and fair society.
2. That the Scottish government enact legally binding policy measures to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025, including by replacing a system based on accelerating consumption with one based on ensuring the well-being of all.
3. The creation of a Scottish Climate Citizens’ Assembly to oversee the changes, as part of creating a democracy fit for purpose and a society that cares for all.

Read more about Extinction Rebellion: https://rebellion.earth