Asad Rehman on climate justice: ‘Now we are seeing these arguments cut through’

Once a reluctant environmentalist', Rehman is key figure in movement that links climate crisis with racial, economic and social justice

Asad Rehman, who emerged as a key figure among the coalition of activists who took to the streets during last month's climate summit in Glasgow, admits to being somewhat of a reluctant environmentalist".

Tucking into his lunch in a cafe in east London, Rehman - the director of the charity War on Want - says having cut his teeth as a young, working-class man fighting the National Front in his home town of Burnley during the 70s and 80s, he initially saw the environment movement as remote and largely irrelevant to the causes he was championing.