Here’s your March update:

Next XR Leeds gatherings: campaigns on 10 March, social on 24 March

Our next campaigns meeting will be held 6pm-8pm on Monday 10th March, at Imagine Leeds, 9 Blenheim Terrace, Woodhouse, Leeds LS2 9HX. If you can’t make it in person, you can join using this Zoom link:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88604820644?pwd=BiuLd4IqnFRdH0aVHX8MkU71GOUJ8e.1

Meeting ID: 886 0482 0644. Passcode: 093273

Our next social gathering will be from 6pm-8pm on Monday, 24 March, also at Imagine Leeds. This is purely a face to face event.

Drax updates

Campaigner found guilty: Axe Drax campaigner, Dr Diana Warner, was found guilty at her trial in Leeds for stopping a train loaded with trees on their way to be burned at Drax power station. Diana felt that the jury was bullied by the judge to find her guilty against their consciences. You can read her full statement here. Her sentencing is set for 25 March in Leeds, so keep a lookout on our WhatsApp group for activities around that date.

Solidarity demo in Leeds: we held a protest in solidarity with Diana, and all the victims of Drax, in the form of a ‘funeral for trees’ procession around the city centre. You can see some great photos here.

Rolling in our money: as well being the UK’s largest single source of emissions, Drax is making obscene profits – and it’s our money they’re rolling in! Drax announced record profits (£3 million per day) shortly after the government decided to hand over £801 million more of bill payers money to Drax after current subsidies expire in 2027, locking us into funding Drax’s shareholders profits until 2031.

Carbon capture climate con trick: Drax’s bosses are so greedy they say that they’ll hold back on carbon capture and storage investment unless they get even more subsidies. We can’t help wondering: are they avoiding carbon capture and storage because they know it is too costly and, more importantly, very unlikely to work? At the same time, they are planning to open three huge gas power stations later this year.

Petition: please sign and share this petition calling on Sheffield University to end its partnership with Drax and follow the lead of other universities in implementing a process to ensure that all new research partnerships and projects are subject to climate-specific due diligence.

Stop Burning Trees Coalition: this group is working hard to expose and oppose Drax. They meet every third Thursday of the month at 7pm and if you’d like to get involved please sign up here to keep up to date.

14th Feb. 2025. Dept. for Energy, Security & Net Zero, Whitehall, London, UK. Stop Burning Trees Coalition protest against subsidies for Drax wood burning power station. Press release Protestors gather outside DESNZ condemning recent Government decision to extend Drax’s subsidies Climate activists from around the country gathered at 12pm on 14th Feb 2025 outside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero in London, to express their anger about the continuation of subsidies for Drax power station, which has already received £7bn of public money since 2012 [1]. Dressed in pink and red for Valentine’s day, protestors gathered under the slogan ‘Ed Miliband: Dump Drax’ and heard speeches from Biofuelwatch, Campaign Against Climate Change and Axe Drax. The recent Government decision to extend subsidies for Drax past 2027 to 2031 will cost bill payers at least £1.8 billion in new subsidies [1]. The protestors condemned this decision, highlighting the impact on bill payers, forests, communities abroad and high emissions from burning wood pellets in power stations. This decision came the day after the BBC revealed another year in which Drax had sourced from primary and old-growth forests that the power station had not properly disclosed [2]. This demonstration was part of a wider emergency mobilisation coordinated by the Stop Burning Trees Coalition, with demonstrations simultaneously happening in Leeds, Tyneside and Nottingham, alongside demonstrations earlier in the week in Bristol and Somerset on Monday after the decision was announced. Merry Dickinson, lead campaigner for the Stop Burning Trees Coalition, said: ‘The recent Government decision to extend subsidies for Drax, the UK’s single largest carbon emitter, spells disaster for bill payers, forests, communities suffering Drax’s pollution, biodiversity and our planet. This decision will drive us closer to climate chaos and result in vital forests being destroyed whilst putting an added b

BP stops pretending to care about climate change

Fossil fuel giant BP has stopped its attempt at greenwashing and more or less abandoned its ‘pledge’ to switch to renewable energy – as if it ever had any intention of such investment in the first place! BP has announced it will increase its investments in oil and gas to £7.9bn a year, while decreasing previously planned funding for renewables by more than £3.9bn. Read more in this article: BP shuns renewables in return to oil and gas.

Tell your MP to Stop Rosebank

In January, this campaign won a hugely important court case against approval of the massive Rosebank oil field, the biggest undeveloped oil field in the UK! We are on the brink of stopping new oil and gas drilling for good.

Now is the time to keep the pressure on to ensure that this victory leads to the lasting change we desperately need. Every MP needs to hear from their constituents that for a safe climate and affordable energy, we must stop new oil & gas now. There are really helpful tips and guidance about contacting your MP on the Stop Rosebank website. Don’t worry if you don’t have time to contact your MP this week – they still need to hear from you.

Public Inquiry into Leeds Bradford Airport’s unlawful night flights, 11-14 March, in Leeds

This Inquiry will decide on the meaning of the night time flying rules at Leeds Bradford Airport. It will run 11-14 March, 9.30-17.00, in the Council Chamber in Leeds Civic Hall. You can come and watch all or any part of it and you don’t have to book in advance, just come when you can. When GALBA wins, LBA will have to stick to the rules that limit the number of flights allowed at night. That’s good news for our climate and good news for local people!

Airport greenwashing events in Headingley, 24 March and Rawdon, 26 March

LBA is going on a ‘charm offensive’ by holding public meetings in areas under the flight path. You have to book in advance and places are limited, so get in early!

Headingley: 6pm to 9pm, on Monday 24 March, at the Heart Centre, Bennett Road, Headingley LS6 3HN. Use this link to register.

Rawdon: 6pm to 8.30pm, on Wednesday 26 March, at Benton Park School, Harrogate Road Rawdon LS19 6LX. Book your place here.

LBA’s boss will be at the meetings, trying to convince people that the airport is a ‘sustainable’ business and a ‘good neighbour’. ‘Sustainable’ businesses don’t pollute the air you breathe or wreck the climate we all depend on. ‘Good neighbours’ don’t make hundreds of unlawful flights at night over your house!

XR festivals outreach in 2025

The XR UK Festivals crew are planning for this year’s events. If you are a festival goer and would like to help at any of the bigger events (may include free entry and help with food costs!), please let us know, giving details of your preferred method of contact, by emailing xrleeds@protonmail.com and we’ll pass them along to the XR UK Crew.

XR Leeds will also have outreach stalls at many smaller, local festivals, galas, fayres and markets in and around Leeds this year. Please get in touch if you’d like to help: xrleeds@protonmail.com. If you know of any events in your area, please fill in the details in this document: Possible Outreach events – 2025.

Activist Wellbeing Support, events during March

The next full day workshop is an introduction to the Art of Listening (& the Joy of Being Heard!): Sunday, 30th March 2025, 10am to 4pm at Imagine Leeds. For further details and to sign up, click here.

Active Hope Stories Listening Circle: Wednesday, 12 March, 7.30pm to 9.00pm (online only). For further details and to sign up, click here.

Care for our World Listening Circle: Tuesday, 18 March 2025, 6.30pm to 8pm at Imagine Leeds. For further details and to sign up, click here.

Climate FRESK training for your community

In order to take action and build solutions, we first need to understand the problem. Climate FRESK is a powerful tool for providing a quality climate education It’s scientific, accessible and effective. Some of the XR Leeds Crew are trained in delivering a half-day Climate FRESK activity workshop so if you’re interested in bringing this to any of your groups in your community, please email us: xrleeds@protonmail.com.