A GIANT coffin is set to be carried through the streets of York on Friday night (November 11).

Members of Extinction Rebellion York will hold a candle-lit vigil in the city centre to protest against the inadequacies of the COP27 climate talks currently taking place in Egypt staring at 6pm.

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The group say the action will begin and end in St Helen’s Square and will include a 'solemn march' around the surrounding streets carrying a giant coffin. Protestors will be joined by the Red Rebels, a silent performance group dressed in dramatic red robes.

York Press:

The ‘funeral for our future’ vigil highlights the ongoing losses around the world as a result of the climate emergency. The action condemns the inaction of world leaders at COP27 and the fact that it is being held in an authoritarian state where protests are effectively banned.

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The vigil is part of a mass, global mobilisation demanding climate justice.

On Saturday (November 12), Extinction Rebellion York will join a Global Day of Action in Sheffield, called to coincide with COP27.

The UN Conferences of Parties on Climate Change (COP) has been happening for almost 30 years, first taking place in 1995.

The group say that in that time yearly global carbon emissions have risen from 23.45 billion tonnes to 36.3 billion tonnes in 2021 and there have been only two years during this period in which emissions dropped compared to the previous year: following the financial crash of 2008 and during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Three decades of conferences with no progress towards decarbonisation is an abject failure.

This year's conference is held against the backdrop of a cost of living crisis, energy crisis, and increasingly extreme weather globally.

Extinction Rebellion York member Peter said: “We must oppose attempts by the Egyptian government to greenwash away their track record of human rights abuses. There are an estimated 60,000 political prisoners in Egypt.”