As the pandemic passes, nothing will feel the same and we need to be ready.
Climate Assembly UK has been suspended due to fears over coronavirus, it announced yesterday.
The group was created by MPs on six parliamentary select committees. It has over 100 members, representative of the UK population, who have been meeting at weekends to hear evidence on the choices the UK faces in order to become net zero by 2050.
The group was due to meet for the fourth and final weekend to vote on policy recommendations, but this has now been postponed. In a statement, it said that it realised the suspension would be disappointing to assembly members and others following its work, but its work would be concluded at a later date.
Crisis
Chris Stark, chief executive of government advisors the Committee on Climate Change, tweeted: “The @CCCUK team will be ready to support the new @NetZeroUK plans when they’re clear. It has been such a good process so far.”
Last week, Extinction Rebellion activists axed plans for a mass rebellion in London on 23 May. But it promised “alternative, creative plans” for May and June.
XR's statement said: “We ask rebels to continue mobilising, to be ready for when the time is right. We believe in the need for mass civil disobedience, until the government responds adequately to the ongoing climate and ecological emergency.
“As the pandemic passes, nothing will feel the same and we need to be ready, we are already in a state of planetary crisis, and we do not have to return to business as usual."
This Author
Catherine Early is a freelance environmental journalist and chief reporter for the Ecologist. She can be found tweeting at @Cat_Early76. Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist.
