GOVERNMENT leaders have been told the time to take action on the climate emergency is now, as activists unveiled plans for action across Britain, including weeks of civil disobedience in London later this month. 

Extinction Rebellion (XR) has warned that the feared consequences of the climate emergency are already upon us after the publication of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) report today. 

The study, which outlines the impact of humanity on the climate through the burning of fossil fuels and other pollutants, says that failure to take action to limit emissions now means the target set by governments of remaining below 1.5°C of warming will be missed.

Starting on August 23, XR will take to the streets. The campaigning group plans to disrupt the City of London to target the main accelerator of the climate crisis — a disastrous economic system supported by politicians — until the government agrees to stop all new fossil fuel investment immediately.

A host of open climate talks will be held by the campaigners in occupied spaces across the capital. 

XR co-founder Clare Farrell said: “We are in the midst of a collective act of global social evil which is unprecedented in all of history. 

“This government is a joke, telling us how to wash our dishes when they should be leading the world towards a mobilisation that saves humanity. 

“People want to live, but we need leadership and it’s nowhere to be seen. So join us, and we will be the leaders we need. Disobey the system that is killing life on Earth.”

The report comes just months ahead of the UN’s Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, which activists have warned could be the world’s final chance to limit global warming and slow the effects of the climate emergency. 

Trade unionists in Scotland have backed calls for action after United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres described the IPCC report as a “code red for humanity” with scientists, campaigners and politicians urging a shift away from polluting fossil fuels and an end to deforestation.

Roz Foyer, STUC general secretary, said: “The IPCC report is certainly stark reading, but we need to use this as an opportunity to further press for concrete changes that we know will help tackle climate change. 

“Governments need to face up to the scale of the problem and take workers along with them.

“What we need is large-scale public intervention that will ensure that the move to net zero will benefit workers.”

Global Justice Now has called for the Scottish government to demand a “total economic overhaul” in the wake of the publication, warning that the Westminster government has left a “global economy-shaped hole in the conversation about decarbonisation.”

Liz Murray, head of Scottish campaigns, said: “Fossil-fuel extraction for the benefit of wealthy countries at the expense of communities in the global south led us into this crisis. It must not be part of the solution. 

“Market-driven solutions have failed. Only a total economic overhaul will prevent the worst of the IPCC’s nightmare scenarios.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the IPCC report underlined the need for urgent action over the coming decade, claiming that Prime Minister Boris Johnson was still not moving quickly enough.

He said: “What we need to see, going into Cop26 in Glasgow, is a Prime Minister leading on the global stage. We need the UK to show by example.

“The biggest threat we now face is not climate denial but climate delay.

“Our communities and planet can no longer afford the inaction of this government, who are failing to treat the crisis with the seriousness it deserves.”

Tory-appointed Cop26 president Alok Sharma described the IPCC report as a “wake-up call for the world.”

Mr Sharma said: “We do need to follow the science and we need to take action this year and make sure that at Cop26 we are able to credibly say that we have kept [a target of limiting warming to] 1.5 degrees alive.”