COP26: Extinction Rebellion to hold funeral ceremony at the Glasgow Necropolis 'to symbolise the failure' of the climate change summit.

The environmental activist group will lead a procession in the Glasgow Necropolis and conduct a ‘funeral’ for COP26, as a means of criticising the failure

The procession will begin today at 11am from Glasgow Cathedral. Extinction Rebellion’s iconic ‘Red Rebels’ will lead a march of protesters, who will be dressed in black shrouds, across Church Lane Bridge, which is often referred to as “the Bridge of Sighs”.

Members of Extinction Rebellion will then perform amongst the headstones of the Necropolis. The ‘Blue Rebels’, a Scottish group similar to the ‘Red Rebels’, will escort a performer playing “COP26”, who will lie down to alongside the headstones, while a piper plays laments.

Extinction Rebellion have described COP26 as “yet another mark of failure”.

Extinction Rebellion 'Red Rebels' yesterday during the official final day of the Cop26 summit.

Karen, an Extinction Rebellion member from the Isle of Barra, said: “We are here grieving for a planet that has been sacrificed by the failure and stupidity of COP26. The bare minimum needed from COP26 were commitments to leaving oil in the ground and an immediate halt to fossil fuel funding. Anything less than that is idiocy. As intelligent life on this planet we are already extinct. We know exactly what we need to do and we’re not doing it.”

Cathy Allen from Extinction Rebellion Oxford said: “At just over 1 degree of warming many communities are already being displaced by floods, drought and loss of land. To continue deliberately heating up the planet for pointless profit will soon displace hundreds of millions. This is no accident – it is a heinous and barbarous crime against humanity. We are especially in mourning for the Global South and those on the frontline communities who will suffer the most but have done the least to cause this crisis. COP26 has failed them. It has failed all of us.”

This follows a day of action in Glasgow that saw a topless activist arrested for protesting at JP Morgan, a group spray-painting “Blood Money” on Barclays bank, two activists pouring red paint and fake blood over themselves at the entrance to the COP26 Blue Zone, and an activist arrested for attempting to “jump the fence” and enter the Blue Zone compound.

Extinction Rebellion protesters gathered outside the entrance to the COP26 site on Friday.

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