Extinction Rebellion member on their COP26 plans

Extinction Rebellion is telling Clyde News the group has no choice but to cause disruption during COP26.

Police Scotland has issued warnings against behaviours like blocking motorways, after the M25 in England was targeted last month, but the group says it will be carrying out some acts of targeted disruption during the first two weeks of November.

Tens of thousands of protestors are expected to march through the city on November 6th with other 'fringe' events planned throughout the two-week conference.

Extinction Rebellion member Ruth D is a gran-to-be from Glasgow. She's been part of several disruptive demonstrations with the group and says "becoming a rebel is the best thing I've ever done".

'We will be doing targeted disruption' at COP26

Ruth told our senior reporter Natalie Crawford-Goodwin: "There are a number of things that we would hope from COP. And the most fundamental one is we want legally binding changes to the way that we've been sharing our planet, because it's manifestly unjust, that we create the climate crisis, and that people from the global south are the ones who pay for it. And it will hurt us.

"So, we want legally binding changes on that. We also want climate justice. Because we started the Industrial Revolution, we're still far exceeding our emissions targets. And the people in the global south and Africa and Polynesia, South America are already paying the price. And we should be paying back that debt to them financially. We want governments to sign up to act on the science and not on vested interests.

"And, of course, we don't know what the outcome of COP26 is going to be. But whatever the outcome, our plan is that we build a groundswell before, during and after COP26 that our government and other governments globally, just can't ignore.

"Now, how are we going to do that? Well, as usual, we're going to be doing some of the things that we're famous for - we will be doing targeted disruption. And I say targeted, because we consult with disadvantaged communities, to see how we can avoid disrupting their lives.

'We don't target disadvantages areas'

"I'll give you an example. In August, we targeted the City of London, where wealth is concentrated, we did not go into areas where there would be somebody who, if they're an hour late for work, they’d lose their job or lose money that they couldn't really afford to lose. So, we're careful about that. Of course, COP26 itself is going to be a massive disruption in itself, we know that. And so, it's not all on us.

"The other thing that we're going to do is we've planned a lot of really fun, creative arty events going on around Glasgow, and that's free for everyone to join in. Anyone can join in and have some fun. I think that's going to be really brilliant.

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"Obviously, there are disruptions that I can't talk about because we always do plan things that are quite secretive, I suppose. And we couldn't give away our plans. Otherwise, the police would instantly know and prevent them.

"Now that sounds as if we're doing something that's terribly bad, I don't believe so. I don't believe that, for example, when we took red paint and splashed it against some of the buildings in the city, that was a bad thing to do. And it was a way of saying you have blood on your hands. And we're going to act out how strongly we feel about that blood on your hands, because somebody's got to see it, otherwise, nothing's going to change."

'You would break a window to save a child from a burning building - that's what we're doing for the planet...'

"I can totally understand why people are fed up of this. I totally get that. But there are two things I would say the first one is… this is how bad the situation is, we're heading for 3.5 degrees. And by the end of the century, and that's disaster, that's runaway climate change that you cannot stop. And we're on target to exceed the limits that we agreed at the last COP25 in Paris, we're way way over that. So, the situation is really severe.

"So, the analogy I use is this… suppose in a house was on fire and you knew that there was a child trapped inside that house? If you knew that child was in there, and you couldn't get into that burning building, you'd break a window to get in and save that child. And that's what we're doing. We're breaking windows to go in and save children. We're acting on behalf of our planet.

"And disruption seems to be the only thing that really gets the government's attention because they really, really don't like it. We tried petitions, we tried protest marches. We tried talking to MPs we tried right into MPs and MSPs. And it was always the same response ‘Yeah, yeah, of course, yeah, we care… But basically, we're not going to do anything about it’. That's what we found. And because we care so much, we are willing to put ourselves on the line and be disruptive. "

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