Things are heating up in more ways than the weather! Look what can be achieved when we work together! We had a wonderful afternoon at the Civic Hall for our big People’s Emergency Briefing VIP Film Screening event… read all about it below. And with more heatwaves on the horizon, check out what you can do to help protect yourself, your family and your community by joining the Heat Strike!

In July’s newsletter:

Coming up this summer…

Wednesday 8th July, 6pm-7pm (online) – XR UK Disobey Talk Series: “When Cleaning Rivers Becomes Resistance” What happened when environmental barrister Paul Powlesland organised a volunteer clean-up of a polluted river, removing 200+ bags of rubbish in an effort to protect a local waterway? This talk shows how radical stewardship can be an effective form of Non-Violent Direct Action.

Saturday 11th July, 11am-5pm – Kirkstall Festival

Sunday 12th July, 11am-4pm – Gledhow Valley Green Fair

23rd July – 30th July, Autonomous Youth Camp 2026, Leeds. Join radical youth from around the country to take part in an autonomous week of training, skillshares, workshops, strategising, communal living and socialising.

Tuesday 28th July, 5.30pm-8pm – Green Drinks Leeds at Imagine Leeds, 9 Blenheim Terrace, Leeds LS2 9HZ. Meet up with XR Leeds members and other environmentally-minded folks and groups from across the city. This month’s guest speaker is Holly Kragiopoulos, Co-Founder and CEO of North Star Coffee Roasters and there’ll be the usual dastardly “pub quiz”.

13th – 16th August: Join us at The Northern Green Gathering! The Northern Green Gathering is an exciting, eco-friendly festival that’s all about celebrating our beautiful planet and the vibrant local culture! It’s a weekend filled with fun, creativity and community spirit as people come together to embrace sustainability and green living.

So, get ready to mingle with fellow nature lovers, discover amazing eco-organisations and meet talented artisans showcasing their work. Enjoy live performances that’ll keep your spirits high, all while learning how to make positive lifestyle changes for our environment. Let’s turn sustainability into a joyful celebration and inspire one another to make a greener tomorrow! You can get tickets and more information here.

Saturday 22nd August, 12 noon: XR Ilkley Summer Picnic, Ilkley Riverside Gardens, just beneath Ilkley Manor House, LS29 9EU. Come along and join XR Ilkley for an informal summer social picnic in the beautiful Riverside Gardens in Ilkley. There will be a variety of vegan food to enjoy and share – any contributions are welcome. Please bring something to sit on. Meet under the tree in the park just below Ilkley Manor House, look out for a flag or two!

National Emergency Briefing 🔜 People’s Emergency Briefing Film

Energy and enthusiasm at our People’s Emergency Briefing VIP Screening Event held at Leeds Civic Hall on 19th June

Our event at the Civic Hall was a great success and exceeded all our expectations! The Banquet Hall was packed with people across all sectors and communities, all willing to work together towards a more hopeful vision of the future. You can read all about it in this Climate Action Leeds blog post and it was also reported in the Yorkshire Evening Post

In collaboration with Climate Action Leeds, we will be continuing this cross-sector visioning and community action with more events being planned in the coming months, so watch this space. More screenings are happening across Leeds in the months ahead too, so if you haven’t had a chance to see the film yet, check out the NEB’s National Screening Map.

Please keep on sharing the NEB’s Parliamentary Petition calling for a UK-wide public briefing from independent experts on the risks posed by climate change and nature loss – and the opportunities if we respond at scale and with urgency. Plus, people power must be causing a stir in Westminster, with Leeds MP and Minister for Climate, Katie White announcing last week the launch of the UK’s first ever taskforce to strengthen climate security.

Love and Rage: 12th, 13th, 14th September, London

A long hot weekend leading to a banging finale on Monday 14th September. You know about the National Emergency Briefing (NEB) but what about the National Security Assessment (NSA)?

The NSA highlights serious threats to UK Security: biodiversity loss, flooding, drought, food shortages, extreme heat, mass migration. These are a danger to us all, but the full NSA has been hidden, redacted. So, to build the world we want and need, to build a path for our children’s survival, it’s clear society must have a common understanding of the facts. And we are going to insist upon it.

Rebels old and new are mobilising, re-engaging with our natural allies and reaching out to the general public to join us because:

  1. Government must Tell the Truth by issuing and publicising the full, unredacted NSA.
  2. Government must Act Now to mitigate against the serious threats to UK security.

On Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th September, at a community space venue tba, there will be assemblies, music, NVDA workshops and a creative space to prepare for Monday’s Finale.

On Monday 14th we take to the streets. The Government knows that climate breakdown is here, yet where is their plan? How do they intend to secure a liveable future for the British people? There will be noise. There will be love and it will be for EVERYONE. Because we’re all in the same soup and it’s coming to the boil.

Connect online to keep up to date with the latest Love & Rage News, information and call outs here. Find XRUK & key Love and Rage links here. Sort accommodation via community home here.

Join the Heat Strike!

As we continue to face record breaking temperatures, join a coalition of unions, climate groups and many more to come together to call for climate action and a maximum working temperature.

Strike while it’s hot!

  • Use our Heatwave handout and Zines to help communities prepare, stay safe and look out for vulnerable neighbours during extreme heat.
  • Download and print the outreach flyer to distribute in your community.
  • Join Heat Strike’s call for safe working conditions with the setting of a maximum working temperature.

Stop Airport Expansion – no more night flights!

Leeds Bradford Airport has been allowed to fly an additional 941 planes at night every year. That’s on top of the 4,000 night flights already allowed. That’s not good news but it is a limit. With their usual disregard for rules, LBA doesn’t accept the limit. Their lawyers wrote to GALBA claiming there is no limit at all on the number planes that can fly at night.

This is FALSE and the Council agrees LBA is WRONG. So the question is: when LBA flies more climate-wrecking planes than are allowed at night, will the Council take them to court? Please write to your local councillors to demand that the Council takes enforcement action the next time LBA breaks the night flight rules.

Drax: Urgent Action! Ask your MP to oppose Drax’s tree burning data centre plans

If Drax’s plans to build data centres go ahead, it will mean decades more of pollution for frontline communities, harm to forests and ever increasing carbon emissions. Please contact your MP with this simple template to ask them to prevent Drax’s data proposals by calling on the Government to reject Drax’s AI data centre bid – for the trees, for local communities, for biodiversity and the future.

Have you signed the petition to stop Drax’s dirty data centre? Drax is desperately trying to find new ways to make more money and are setting their sights on powering data centres by burning trees. Sign the petition with Biofuelwatch and Global Action Plan to say NO to Drax’s dirty data centres.

Take Part in York University’s Climate Action Research

If you can spare an hour or two, please consider participating in one of York University’s current research projects. They are particularly interested in hearing from XR Leeds members. You can find all the details in their Participant Information Sheet.

Petitions

Zero Hour: Call on Andy Burnham to Secure Our Future

Add your name to call on Andy Burnham to: meet the UK’s international and nature commitments, pass the Nature & National Security Bill in this Parliament and reject all new oil and gas licences, including Rosebank, and deliver a just transition.

Tell FIFA to Kick Out Polluters The beautiful game brings joy to billions but in recent years, football has felt less and less like the community game that it used to be. Huge sums of money swirl around, ordinary fans are priced out of following their team and the world’s worst fossil fuel producers and polluters are welcomed with open arms, including in the Men’s World Cup right now. That’s why, during the World Cup, Client Earth are demanding that FIFA kicks polluters out of football. Find out more and sign their petition here.

· 

·  · 

·  ·  · 

Good News

· 
UK sales of electric vehicles overtake petrol cars! For the first time in the UK, more new electric vehicles (EVs) have been sold over a 12-month period than petrol cars, according to Carbon Brief’s recent analysis.

·  Wind and solar outpace gas! In April, wind and solar combined generated more electricity than gas globally for the first month ever. Fresh data from Think Tank Ember shows that together wind and solar generated 22% of global electricity in April, compared with 20% from gas. Combined wind and solar output is estimated to have grown 13% year on year across the globe.