Climate change & climate action

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…

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…

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…

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.

We…

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…

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, legally-…

Borras and Holt community protection camp. Photo: Kelvin Mason

The newly-elected Conservative government is set to follow through on David Cameron’s infamous 2014 pledge to go ‘all out for fracking’. They will also cancel subsidies for new onshore wind turbines. Allowing free-market dogma to dictate ecocide rather than plan a sustainable energy future, this government is contemptuous of the greatest moral challenge of our age, climate change.

So dire is the impact of human activity…

2008 photo of re-elected Conservative MP, and former Ecologist editor,
Zac Goldsmith, who was at the launch of COIN’s report on the centre-right in 2013. Photo: Annie Mole

The UK election results on 7 May have left many climate activists dejected as they had pinned their hopes on the Labour party championing climate action over the next five years. But what should they do now?

Climate activists have traditionally been radically-minded, focused on the transformations needed to…

Climate Warriors blockade of Newcastle coal port in Australia, on 17 October 2014.
Photo: 350.org

Since international climate negotiations began a quarter of a century ago, annual greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 60 per cent.

As we approach yet another climate summit this November in Paris, the question for the climate protection movement is not just can some kind of agreement be reached, but how can we reverse the continuing climate catastrophe over the next quarter-…

Time to Act on Climate Change marchers sit down in The Strand, London,
21 March 2015. Photo: Milan Rai.

Two of the most important things the next British government will do are: take part in the Paris climate negotiations in December, and decide on the replacement (or not) of the Trident nuclear weapon system next year.

On both issues, smaller, more progressive parties like the Scottish National Party, the Green Party and Plaid Cymru are likely to have a bigger impact than…

Elements of a campaign by Frack Free Wales came together in January when Ceredigion council voted to become the first ‘frack-free’ local authority in Wales.

Fracking is shorthand for ‘hydraulic fracturing’ for oil or gas, underground coal gasification, and coal-bed methane, all of which threaten Wales.

None of these fuels exist in Ceredigion, however. The council’s decision reflected its commitment to moving away from all fossil fuels, which drive climate change.…

On 2 March, after five years of action by Earth Quaker Action Team, PNC bank announced a shift in its policy that will effectively cease its financing of mountaintop-removal coal mining in the Appalachia mountain region in the eastern United States.

This marks a major turnaround for the seventh-largest bank in the US, which for years refused to budge on this issue. After more than 125 actions, their desire to continue business as usual proved no match for Earth Quaker…