Extinction Rebellion announces new tactics ahead of mass protest this weekend - 'We've changed'

Extinction Rebellion have announced a change in tactics that previously saw members barricade roads and bridges to raise public awareness about climate change.

But that is all set to change, the group says, as it launches 'The Big One' - four days of direct action outside the Houses of Parliament with plans to form a human ring around the Palace of Westminster.

"We have changed," Extinction Rebellion spokesperson Yaz Ashmawi told Yahoo News UK. "We're not just blocking random junctions anymore, we're coming to the centre of power.

"We are doing actions that do result in arrests but we're targeting all those actions at the pillars in society that are most responsible and have the most power and influence to make a difference.

"There is a difference, we're not going for the big, public mass disruption that we have in the past."

Read more: Extinction Rebellion begins protest in streets of central London

More than 30,000 people have pledged to attend the protest, and plans for the weekend include everything from department pickets to an origami boat protest aimed at the home secretary, as well as film screenings, workshops and family-friendly activities.

Thousands of people will also form a human chain around the Palace of Westminster as MPs leave.

The group, which cites its two demands for the four-day protest as establishing a people's assembly and ending reliance on fossil fuels, acknowledges that its previous protests may not have gone down well with everyone - but they say there is no denying they got results.

"In 2019, XR held these week-long, two-week-long sustained protests blocking junctions in central London during the spring and during the autumn," Ashmawi said.

"At the time people were saying it's not helping your cause but we came with three demands: to declare a climate emergency, to set a net-zero target and to initiate a citizen's assembly to decide to how reach that target.

"At the beginning of the year none of those things seemed possible, and yet somehow by the end of the year all three of them happened to some extent - the net zero target was pushed quite far away, the citizens assembly wasn't really listened to but those things were actually initiated.

"So on some level there's a fundamental influence from bringing people out on the streets," he added, explaining recent research from Oxford University had showed that of all the different ways people received information about climate change, mass sustained protest had the most impact.

More than 200 different groups are involved in the four-day protest, including NHS workers, Greenpeace and the high-profile Just Stop Oil, whose latest action involved an orange-powder protest that halted play at the World Snooker Championships.

With the planned action happening at the same time at the London Marathon this weekend, questions have been asked about whether there are any plans by the more provocative groups involved in the action to disrupt the race.

Read more: When is the London Marathon 2023? Will Mo Farah run? Will there be protests?

"We have full-on assurances from Just Stop Oil that they won't be disrupting the marathon," Ashmawi stressed as race spectators were warned to avoid Parliament Square on Sunday. "Lots of groups have different ideas on how to affect change... we can knock on these protesters but they are sacrificing everything to protect the future for their children, and for all of our children."