Climate change & climate action
12 & 13 February: Global Divestment Day
Fossil Free UK say: ‘After the Paris climate deal, getting the solutions we need means building on our momentum and bringing the pressure home. It means building our power, demanding just climate solutions and breaking our ties with the fossil industry once and for all. On 12-13th February people all around the country will be showing their love for the climate, and taking action in their communities to divest from fossil fuels – join…
On Dec. 7th, indigenous activists from across the world kayaked down the river Seine to protest the removal of the protection of indigenous rights as a crucial aspect of the climate treaty being negotiated in Paris. The push back against indigenous rights was led by the U.S., EU, Australia – all states with a rich past and present of colonial exploitation of people and land – who feared that the protection of indigenous rights might create legal liabilities.
The securing of indigenous…
Five Christian climate protestors were arrested in Whitehall on 30 November for protesting against government hypocrisy on climate change, which they called a 'climate whitewash'. The five, from Christian Climate Action, were arrested for criminal damage after writing in whitewash and black paint on the wall of the DECC (department for energy and climate change). They said 'underneath…
Like global climate change group 350.org, we all need to look beyond the Paris climate talks and whatever protests we manage to organise there to the building of mass civil disobedience for climate justice in 2016. 350.org is talking about an escalation in May 2016.
Whatever comes out of the COP21 negotiations in…
Graphic: Bryn
Attac released this statement on 18 November, just five days after the attacks in Paris:
In the aftermath of the massacres of Paris, members and supporters of Attac, in unison with the French society, feel horror and revulsion at the indiscriminate and murderous hatred.
Attac expresses its solidarity with the victims and their relatives. The people murdered Friday night were merely exercising their right to conviviality, to…
The hopes of the world are once again being placed on one meeting, and are once again guaranteed to be dashed before the first words are even uttered.
That’s a hard sentence for a long-time climate change activist to write. But it’s absolutely true. For 21 straight years, the United Nations has made a fatal mistake in its attempt to curb the emission of greenhouse gases around the globe.
I’m talking about a mistake of truly epic proportions, and of mesmerising idiocy,…
The climate negotiations in Paris in December are shaping up to be an orgy of self-congratulation for the great powers, as they trumpet pledges to reduce their carbon emissions. There's a real risk that an inadequate - and non-binding - deal will nevertheless be represented as ʻsolvingʼ the problem of climate change.
Thereʼs an ominous parallel here with the 'Make Poverty History' campaign…
Back in October 2007, George Monbiot published The New Coal Age. Expressing his absolute incomprehension and dismay, Monbiot wrote: ‘If this is allowed to happen, we might as well give up now.’ He was, of course, talking about Ffos y Fran opencast coalmine.
Well, our authorities in Wales, from the Labour-controlled government to Merthyr Tydfil council, did allow…
Do you want to be part of a rising movement for climate justice and a Just Transition to a decarbonised economy? The UN summit on climate change (COP21) is coming to Paris in December and mobilisations are gaining momentum.
PN is…
How can we create a genuinely common agenda for the climate movement and the disarmament movement? It’s easy – and still important – to say that the money we spend on nuclear weapons could be spent on preventing climate change, but there must be more than that.
For us in the peace movement, it can be hard sometimes to see that climate change is already a reality today, it’s not just about what might happen two generations from now. We’re already seeing the impact of climate change…
On 13 July, 12 climate change activists from anti-airport expansion direct action group, Plane Stupid, broke into Heathrow airport in west London at 3.30am. They locked-on to fencing on the north runway, disrupting flights for eight hours, leading to 22 flights being cancelled.
The protesters said that going ahead with the recent Airports Commission recommendation of a third Heathrow runway would make it impossible…
After Lancashire county council unexpectedly rejected Cuadrilla’s application to frack at Preston New Road, near Blackpool, on 29 June, I wanted to hear a bit more of the story from someone at the frontline of this monumental decision. Bob Dennett is a co-founder of Frack Free Lancashire. On 1 July, he told me a bit about the story that led to Monday’s campaign win, and the…
To halt climate change we need drastic cuts in the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases we put into the air. That means leaving most of the existing reserves of high carbon fuels – coal, oil and gas – in the ground. There are thousands of things we need to do to make that a reality. But three of them will make most of the difference.
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Abandoned power station in Charleroi, Belgium. Photo: Tom Redd
In December, the centre of Paris will be taken over by campaigners demanding that their governments make a legally-binding pledge to tackle climate change. ‘Coalition Climat 21’ will be organising actions in the run-up to, and during, the 21st United Nations climate change ‘conference of the parties’ (COP21) from 30 November – 11 December.
Hopes are high that the Paris negotiations will end with a universal,…