Forget COP: UK cities prepare for climate justice action this weekend

Following the hottest summer on record and successive u-turns on environmental policy, public demonstrations are planned across Britain on Saturday 9th December. 

NowWeRise is driven by a long list of organisations, campaign groups and charities working within the climate space, including Climate Justice Now and Global Justice Now. Towns and cities nationwide will stage gatherings, while two major events are also planned for central London and Scotland.

As the Campaign Against Climate Change explained on its page dedicated to this weekend, ‘the 28 in COP28 means that this will be the 28t such event. Many climate campaigners were not even born when this process started. Yet after almost three decades global emissions are still increasing, even as temperatures rise and the impacts of climate breakdown multiply.’ 

 While the failures of the annual summit to bring about the level of change needed to slow the environmental crisis form a basis for the day of action – which has been staged to coincide with previous editions of COP – this year has been particularly controversial. Hosts United Arab Emirates have one of the biggest petroleum economies in the world, with plans to significantly expand the industry in the coming years. 

Prior to the first day of talks in Dubai, news broke that many of the state’s representatives had been planning on trying to use the two-week long gathering to broker new fossil fuel deals. Then, as we reported this week, attendance figures were released showing that oil and gas lobbyists outnumbered the combined delegations of the 10 most climate-vulnerable countries on the planet. 

Cities including Leeds, Preston, Durham, Manchester, Brighton, Nottingham, Liverpool, Cardiff, Birmingham, Leicester, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Newcastle, and Belfast all have individual marches and protests planned. 

Those interested in events scheduled for this weekend can find a full list of locations and times here.

More on climate justice: 

Arsonists at a firefighting convention: Is COP28 a cop-out?

UK Government faces human rights challenge over climate crisis

Regrets? We have a few: Britain’s bankrupt net zero politics