How Extinction Rebellion shot itself in the foot

It was easy to criticise Westminster for caving into Extinction Rebellion’s demands for a ‘citizen’s assembly’ on climate change when it agreed to convene just such a body at the end of last year. By appeasing the group’s law-breaking, so the argument went, parliament was emboldening XR and other direct action groups to block streets, spraypaint buildings, smash windows and so on. 

But the exercise, which has just concluded in a handful of recommendations to government, has served one purpose: it has proved that the public’s views on climate change and what to do about it are nowhere near that of Extinction Rebellion. 

That seems to have come as a shock to the group, which, after making a citizen’s assembly one of its central demands, has now condemned what it sees as the assembly’s timidity.

Last week, after meeting over six weekends, listening to climate scientists, energy specialists and the like, the assembly published its report.

Most popular

Zoe Strimpel

Women would be wise to avoid the streets of Lambeth at night

Unsurprisingly, given that it was made up of a random sample of 108 members of the public rather than a bunch straggle-haired XR activists, its proposals were moderate and in the main fairly sensible.