Climate campaigners ‘to die’ in Sheffield Town Hall

They plan to collapse on the floor of the foyer and pretend to be dead.

Organisers have also encouraged people to banners, placards and instruments to “create a cacophony of sounds in a very turbulent time for humanity.”

Nathan Strathdee, of Extinction Rebellion, said the aim is to symbolise the death of the planet and life on it as a result of climate change and air pollution. They also hope it will urge councillors to fulfill recent promises to tackle climate change.

It comes after the council became the biggest city in the UK to declare a climate emergency, pledged to bring its carbon neutral target forwards by two decades to 2030 and recently introduced climate change as a cabinet portfolio priority.

Councillor Lewis Dagnall, cabinet member for climate change, said: “Climate change involves every member of the cabinet equally to meet our obligations, so I’ll be co-ordinating our response with carbon budgeting which will set some very clear yardsticks for the city.

“Climate change is obviously the biggest challenge we face but it’s just one of the ecological disasters we are facing. Another is this the issue of biodiversity so it’s very important that we develop a resilience in the ecology to meet with climate change.”

Campaigner Tevy Kuch, 18, said: “We must keep reminding ourselves and those in power of the dire situation that we’ve put ourselves in. Declaring a climate emergency was just the tip of the iceberg, there needs to be more action and more tangible change.”

The original plan was for a ‘die-in’ at Stanage Edge which was cancelled due to concerns about disrupting ground nesting birds.

They will gather at the Town Hall at 10am on Wednesday, May 15 ahead of the council’s AGM during which the new Lord Mayor of Sheffield will be inagurated and new committees decided.