Let’s give Extinction Rebellion protestors what they want

Extinction Rebellion’s leaders have arrived in London by fossil-powered train, car and bus – brandishing their mobile phones full of rare Earth metals, to protest against wasteful consumption. Extinction Rebellion is calling for urgent action on climate change. The good news for the government is that there is a radical green policy that would placate the mob and simultaneously tick several policy boxes too.

Stripping away the rhetoric, Extinction Rebellion is making two demands – one is that countries commit to immediate radical action to cut carbon well ahead of the 2050 date in the current inter-governmental agreement (not endorsed by the world’s biggest polluter, the United States). 

The second demand is that governments abide by the decisions of a series of Citizens Assemblies “for climate and ecological justice.” This is the movement’s great weakness. 

Its founder Roger Hallam says it would be wrong for the political “elite” to propose policies to end pollution and global warming.