A Sheffield City council meeting yesterday was adjourned due to disruption caused by Extinction Rebellion protesters.
Yesterday marked five years since the council called a climate emergency. Since 2019 the city has only seen a 3% cut in reducing emissions. The target for 2030 is to reduce emissions by 80%.
The Extinction Rebellion attended the council meeting asking why there had been such little progress. They chanted for ‘system change not climate change’, whilst flying a banner which said ‘Time’s run out, act now.’
Green party candidate for Ecclesall, Paul Gilbert said: “I’m terrified for the future, I’m not hopeful at all, you look at our council, they’ve achieved almost nothing.
“We are in an emergency and you either treat it like one or you don’t, currently I don’t see that appetite from our current politicians in the main parties and nationally it’s looking even worse.”
Councillor Bryan Lodge pulled on the banner in response. The meeting was eventually adjourned after the protesters refused to stop.
Rob Unwin, 59 from Extinction Rebellion said: “We need massive public education campaigns, we need more Greta Thunbergs to mobilise old and young people to demand change.
“I do fear for the future but I don’t think we don’t have some agency here, human beings can make changes, we are incredible as a species in what we can achieve but we need political leadership.”
Protests continued outside of the town where members of the Extinction Rebellion laid down on the floor.
The protesters wore Bee hats in order to raise awareness over concerns of glyphosate harming biodiversity due to it being used in parks.
Mr Unwin said: “Bees are like the canaries of the biodiversity movement, they are creatures we can’t live without, if the bees die the planet wouldn’t survive more than a few years.”
Councillor Andrew Sangar made a speech in response to the concerns raised.
In an interview he said: “Clearly lots needs to be done, The council is relooking at its transport vision, we need buses that are affordable and reliable to give people choice, so that’s a really important thing in terms of transport.
“We’ve not made as much progress as we could, but we’ve still got a COP process, we’ve got the IPCC, we’ve got more than we ever did, now we need to make some changes.”
The council meeting resumed later in the day.