Former Extinction Rebellion activists say climate protests have faded

Former activists speak out

Former Extinction Rebellion activists say the climate protest movement that once brought British roads to a standstill has faded, as harsher sentencing, public backlash and a crowded news agenda take their toll.

A few years ago Extinction Rebellion dominated headlines. Its roadblocks led to thousands of arrests, and in 2019 a documentary followed activists including 19-year-old Daisy Wyatt, who believed she had found her calling. The picture now is different. It is 2026, the UK has had a record-breaking hot summer, and the government has approved a new gas field, Jackdaw, in the North Sea. Yet disruptive climate protests have virtually disappeared from the headlines.

A personal retreat

Wyatt is now 26, acting and working in a cafe in Shrewsbury. She has left London and activism behind, partly disillusioned. She said she felt small while the issues felt big, and she could not see how to make meaningful change. The cost of living crisis also left little capacity to worry about the near future when the present was so difficult. Looking back, she said she was 19, passionate and invested. She thought the first rebellions were effective because there had not been a large protest movement for a while and they turned heads. But later actions became more disruptive to ordinary people, which she disagreed with, arguing that systems should be confronted.

Legal pressure and shifting attention

Other campaigners also moved away from radical tactics, the report said, because they knew those tactics had become deeply unpopular. For those who carried on, policing and sentencing became harsher. Lawyer Raj Chada said that until about 2019 he had not had anyone imprisoned in a protest case in the previous 10 years or so. Since 2019, dozens of people have been remanded in custody or imprisoned. The report noted that some protesters were charged with relatively minor public order offences that would by and large not be imprisonable. Wyatt said she was willing to be arrested but did not think she would have been willing to go to prison, and that being arrested made her think about the consequences.

Civil disobedience in the name of climate is now thin on the ground. In September, rumours that the government might approve new oil and gas were too much for some, and activists glued themselves to a road in the first such protest in 17 months. One told the report they had been arrested 17 times and had gone to prison for 10 months the last time, promising their family they would not do anything again. The report said this suggested harsher sentencing was having the deterrent effect intended, while asking whether that was the kind of society people wanted. It also observed pro-Palestine bracelets and scarves among protesters and noted that campaign movements rise and fall with the news agenda. In recent years, Palestine has dominated, though the report suggested climate could come to the fore again.

Despite the September protest, the decision to approve Jackdaw went ahead. The climate protest movement has collided with harsher laws, public anger and a shifting news cycle. A committed handful remain willing to go to prison for their cause, but for the ordinary person, the report concluded, it is back to work.