It's 2025 now what?

Key Messaging

What's the big deal about 2025?

In 2018, the XR co-founders, after much deliberation and conferring with leading scientists and other climate and environment experts, set the deadline by which the UK should reach net-zero carbon emissions for the year 2025. The science proved that we needed to rapidly decarbonise, there were already various blueprints from organisations proving it was possible, and for the sake of those already impacted by climate change (almost entirely communities in the global south) it was the morally right thing to do.

As to HOW this was going to be done, XR also had an answer: this should be decided by everyday people, those who would be impacted by the changes, who were not influenced by lobbyists and money, who could think long-term, and who would work together as a group to find solutions that would work for everyone: a citizens’ assembly.

Now it is 2025. And our demand has not been met. So what are we going to say about it?

Don’t Sugarcoat the Truth

There is no denying that we have reached a catastrophic state of impending collapse. The crisis has arrived on our doorstep sooner than anyone expected and it’s only getting worse.

Pretending otherwise is not only untruthful but also unfair to those who are already severely impacted by environmental and societal collapse - whether in Greater Manchester from floods, California from wildfires, or Sudan from extreme drought induced famine.

Let’s tell the truth, however uncomfortable it is.

It’s Not Too Late

The narrative that “it’s too late why bother” is a tactic used by the fossil fuel industry and the right wing media to normalise the climate and ecological crisis and to make the public feel ~~detached~~there ~~from~~is ~~the~~no ~~subject.~~point doing anything anymore. It is not too late. Every fraction of a degree makes ~~a difference.~~

We need to give people hope that they can make a difference and that our world is worth fighting for (non-violently of course). We need to balance our language by saying things as they are but also giving people a pathway for how they can make a difference.

The Emergency is Here and Now

The climate and ecological emergency is not something that will happen in the distant future toin far off lands. It is happening here and now on our doorsteps.

There are so many injustices in the world that it can be hard to focus on climate and destruction of nature if it isn’t affecting you directly, but it is, it might just not be clear how. We need to clearly show the links between climate, nature and social justice and how they affect each other.

The Science

2024 has now been confirmed as the first year we pass 1.5°C according to the EU’s Copernicus Earth Observation Programme. In fact it’s worse than that. It’s 1.6°C.

Right now the increase in global temperatures has blind-sided scientists who are struggling for explanations. Temperatures were expected to cool after the end of the El Nino season in April of 2024 and the Met Office’s central estimate for 2024, for example, was 1.46°C - i.e. cooler than 2024. That didn’t happen.

What Could Have Been

Imagine what 2025 could have looked like if we had achieved our Third Demand. A world where ordinary people make decisions together, not based on profit and personal gain but on helping your fellow inhabitants of this earth.

Imagine how much worse it could have been if didn’t act, if XR never came to be. Who knows? Maybe the government still wouldn’t have declared a climate emergency for example. We have achieved some incredible things over the last six years which have left a lasting impression. Let’s celebrate those achievements, the big and the small because it could have been so much worse.

Key facts

2024 Was the First Year Above 1.5C of Global Warming – Here’s How We Should Respond

This piece was written by the XRUK Press team in collaboration with many people from different circles. It contains some killer facts that will be useful for interviews, rebuttals, or even just conversations on the street during an action:

2024 was the first year that global average temperatures exceeded 1.5C according to the EU’s Copernicus Earth Observation Programme. In fact it’s worse than that. It’s 1.6C.
Every 0.1 C places 100 million people (or more) in unliveable temperatures.
BUT this also means that any 0.1.C temperature increase we avoid, could save 100 million people.
It will get worse faster: heating amplifies feedback loops in the climate system, and as we move past 1.5C we increasingly cross tipping points. This means that things will not only get worse, but will get worse faster.
Eg. Melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets will catastrophically raise sea levels.
E.g. The death of warm-water corals destroys a natural carbon sink.
E.g. The melting of permafrost releases powerful greenhouse gasses.
E.g. The breakdown of Atlantic ocean circulation changes how heat is distributed across the planet.
A threshold could be passed where feedbacks uncontrollably tip the system into a Hothouse Earth scenario resulting in 4-5°C higher than pre-industrial levels and with sea level rise of 10-60m higher than today.
Feedback loops are not yet fully integrated into climate models, current emissions plans might fall short in adequately limiting future warming,” leading climate scientists warned in October.

Hashtags and handles

#HereAndNow #NotTooLate #ExtinctionRebellion #TellTheTruth

@XRebellionUk