Clare Farrell, Co-founder, Extinction Rebellion (XR):

What XR did that was different was to give people permission to grieve and to engage emotionally with what’s going on. Carbon emissions are a bit abstract to the average citizen. XR made climate change personal and emotional, and connected people – and that made a big difference in what we could inspire people to do in terms of action.

The question that I have for the charity sector is: at what point will you, as organisations, find the courage to say it is time for ordinary citizens to go out en masse and break laws? You know deep down that this is how change happens – it always has. Why won’t you help? If it takes for you to go and have big, long, awful conversations in your boardrooms and with your members, then I implore you to do it. It’s not right to not support people who are taking big risks to change things with peaceful action. One way charities could help Extinction Rebellion and other grassroots groups is to second skilled staff to them.