Two years ago, XRNL did have a 4th demand which named Climate Justice as part of it. The April 2019 Rebellion was with these 4 demands – a lot of people signed up and remember these.

Since then, many more people have become active and are more familiar with the 3 current demands – these were formulated in July 2019. When updating the demands, XRNL did not remove Climate Justice as a demand of the government, instead, it was absorbed into Demands 2 and 3. Climate Justice remains to be part of current XRNL demands and you can see this in the extended text on the website. At the time, the movement gave consent for this so the demands were easier to communicate.

What the Demand Zero Toolkit now asks is for XRNL to consider whether this communication can be updated? Do we think that climate justice is feel, heard and understood from the work of XRNL?

Since the late 2019 declaration of rebellion in the Netherlands, the public understanding has shifted to one which overwhelmingly accepts there is a climate emergency. XR always set out to shift the Overton window – the widely accepted viewpoint of the public – Demand Zero wants to continue to shift the public understanding.

Now the body politic is moving much more toward understanding the need to act, we put forward that XRNL can help to ensure the justice element of the emergency is heard and felt.

Demand 0 is foundational to the logic of demands 1, 2 and 3. It provides the common thread of why we demand that the government Tell the Truth, Act Now and let Citizens Decide on the climate and ecological crisis.

The naming of the demand borrows from the naming of the laws of thermodynamics. After formation of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd laws of thermodynamics, a additional law was discovered, that of the deep principle of ‘thermodynamic equilibrium’ which the other three laws rested upon. The demand for climate justice mirrors this concept and establishes itself as the underlying deep principle of demands 1, 2 and 3.

Recognising that Climate Justice is not an addon or extra, we name it Demand Zero and state it as a precondition to demands 1, 2 and 3 so that they are guided by Climate Justice for All.

Recognising that finding consent nationally for a demand is very complicated, are taking a ground up rather than a top down approach.

We ask XRNL Local Group chapters and other groups to learn about the demand and find consent at local level. Once we reach a level of saturation, we can more easily find consent nationally.

1. Rebels raise the proposal to their local Coordination Circle (CC).
2. The CC help direct ‘Shared Learning’ about the demand and share through sub-circles.
3. Sub circles discuss Demand Zero and seek consent – or by some other means of decision making the local groups already use.
4. Consent at local level means the demand can be implemented locally.
5. CELEBRATE! Then put it into practice…

Throughout the process, Inclusion and Power at National level are happy to support with the conversations.