The Jersey branch of the socio-political movement was launched in April when a demonstration was held outside the States Assembly building in the Royal Square.
A few months on and the environmental group now has around 1,000 members online and is holding a week of talks and workshops, along with a demonstration on Wednesday.
Protesters all over the UK and across the world have held up cities with mass sit-ins in a bid to get people to listen to what they have to say about climate change. The Jersey group wants to make an impact here and have planned direct action around St Helier on Wednesday. However, they said they were not planning to disrupt traffic.
Protesters will meet in the Royal Square at 12.30pm, with members dressing in animal costumes and masks to stage a die in – a form of protest in which the participants pretend to be dead.
Member Eckart Webber said the group was largely happy with the pledges that had been made by the government about Jersey moving towards carbon neutrality and helping to reduce climate change.
However, he said he believed that the Island needed to bring its carbon neutrality target date, 2030, down further, and added that other countries needed to do the same. He said: ‘The government has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2030 and a lot of other areas have declared a climate emergency, which is welcomed.
‘But the target should be coming down to 2025. There are guidelines for 2030 which government’s around the world take as gospel truth – but things need to happen sooner. The group here are staging a non-violent protest this week and then our ongoing work is about scrutinising the plans the government have on climate change and engaging with the government on these topics.’
As well as the protest on Wednesday, a talk is being held on Wednesday evening, along with inductions to Extinction Rebellion on 15 and 21 September.
For more information search for Extension Rebellion Jersey on Facebook.
