Climate change protesters staged a rally outside the offices of Newark and Sherwood District Council on Tuesday evening.

A motion demanding the council declare a Climate Emergency was debated inside the chamber at Castle House.

The motion was tabled by Labour leader Paul Peacock that demanded the council declare a Climate Emergency and pledge to work with a citizen's assembly to enact legally-binding policy measures to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025.

Gallery1

Protestors attended the meeting of the council, which was held in public, and left once the amended motion was passed.

On October 8 of last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued a report on the climate that warned if the planet warmed to 1.5C there would be devastating consequences, such as the loss of most coral reefs, and increased extreme weather like heatwaves and floods.

And according to Newark and Sherwood's Extinction Rebellion leader, Roger Bell, the consequences of 2C warming would be far worse and warned keeping to 1.5C requires radical change across energy, industrial, agricultural, and urban systems to reduce fossil fuel emissions.

He said: "We want to make sure the council declares a climate emergency in a motion proposed by councillor Peacock tonight. The United Nations announced last year that we must cut our carbon emissions by 50 percent globally or we face irreversible climate change and mass extinction.

"Parliament have not yet decided to act upon their decision, but with the Paris agreement, we will have to cut 100% of emissions by 2030. If you look at the science, an IPCC prediction suggests that all summer ice will melt by 2100, but if you look at what's actually happening - the best case scenarios are that it will happen by 2025. What will we do about the polar bears?"

Extinction Rebellion have three core demands:

• That the Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency working to communicate the urgency for change.

• The Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.

• The Government must create and be led by the decisions of a citizens assembly on climate and ecological justice.

Extension Rebellion Newark and Sherwood spokesman Donna Bowyer said: "The IPCC report had to be the motivation. It was terrifying reading, the truth is that it may already be too late.No matter what we do, it is not good. But what is the worst that can happen through trying?"

Donna added that all government tiers of authority need to reduce carbon emission to net zero by 2025 – Newark and Sherwood among them – and stated shifts have to be radical.

"The science is there and pretty clear. In terms of the margins, we just don't know, can't know, whether we're already over the tipping point."

A climate change Funeral for the Future will take place on Saturday as Extinction Rebellion Newark and Sherwood 'mourn the future' with a sombre funeral procession.

Protestors from all over the district will meet at the War Memorial on the Burgage at Southwell at 10am and process to the minster carrying a coffin to symbolise the death of Planet Earth.

The mourners will follow the coffin down King Street arriving at Southwell Minster where its bell will toll in an 11 minute 'die-in' to signify 11 years left before it may be too late to reverse the climatic catastrophe said to face us all.

Resident director of Hockerton Housing Project – a community of five earth 'green' sheltered homes in Hockerton – Simon Tilly, warned if no change is made, places like Lincoln "will be seaside towns before we know it".

"I think this motion is so important because it has become more and more apparent that no one in the government is enabling us to become emission free. Obviously as individuals we are trying out best, but the next step is policies implemented by the higher up people," he explained.

"We have only got 11 years to reduce our carbon emissions dramatically, so the truth needs to be spoken and it needs to be made a big deal."

Simon said that one his team's approaches is trying to implement a citizens assembly where decisions can be made on a non-political basis, adding: "Northern Ireland have solved issues as big as abortion and gay marriage through a citizens assembly so I can't see why it wouldn't work."

A second protest has been planned for Newark, which was dependent on the result of a climate change motion.