“The fact that Michael Gove cannot even commit to declaring a climate and ecological emergency at the moment is not only a political failure, we believe that’s a moral failure on behalf of our politicians,” said Sam Knights, a 22-year-old Extinction Rebellion activist after the meeting with British environment minister Michael Gove.

Gove said climate change is a “grave” challenge, but stopped short of calling it a climate emergency.

“Politicians should be judged on actions not words,” he said. “We should show that we’re making a difference rather than simply telling everyone how important it is to change” reports Reuters.

