Campaign Against Climate Change

The destabilisation of global climate has become the very greatest threat to our planet and everyone on it – with the possible exception only of all-out war with modern weapons of mass-destruction. We don't know how much irreversible damage we have done already but we know that if we do not act now the effects will be many times more devastating still The damage has been done mainly by the rich nations but the poorest will suffer most...though everyone is threatened in the long run.

Action is urgently needed now. But ignorance, inertia, short term greed and vested interests stand in the way. Campaign against Climate Change exists to fight against all these things in the interests of pushing for the urgent and radical action we need to prevent the irreversible destabilisation of global climate.

In particular The CCC acts as an umbrella group for street demonstrations designed to maximise the greatest number of people in order to push for urgent action on climate change, challenge those who are preventing this and raise the profile of the issue, generally.

At the moment it is the US that is the most serious obstruction to globally coordinated action to combat climate change (see Climate Politics and the US ) and so our campaign is now particularly focussed against the US adminstration and its policy on Kyoto, with demonstrations frequently targeting the US embassy.

We believe that action currently being taken to control climate change is nowhere near sufficient to match the scale of the problem. We cannot trust governments or leave it to other people to take the necessary action - we need to take action ourselves to make sure we leave an inhabitable planet to our children and future generations. But at the moment we are not doing nearly enough to make up the lost ground in the race we are now losing against the escalating threat from climate change. We need bigger rallies, more actions, more marches and protests to galvanise both our own and the global community into taking the decisive and immediate action that is urgently required. To do that we need you.

To see our past events and protests then please Click Here

MARCH ON PARLIAMENT - SATURDAY 6th DECEMBER 2008

The National Climate March 2008 filled the streets of London again - thanks to everyone who made it another great success ! This time thousands marched on Parliament to demand action from the UK government on climate change.

Protestors carried banners and placards saying 'No New Coal', 'No Third Runway', 'Stop Agrofuels' and 'Time for a Green New Deal'.

Protestors were also demanding meaningful action on climate from world leaders and their representatives at the Poznan Climate Talks.The demonstration was part of a Global Day of Action in which around 70 countries were involved - see www.globalclimatecampaign.org

The marchers gathered at Grosvenor Square on a crisp and sunny winters day. A colourful and noisy throng brought their message through the streets of London to the very doorstep of government. Protestors displayed the kind of colourful creativity in costumes, banners and assorted props, that we have come to expect from climate marches. A notable new addition this year were the '4 horsemen of the apocalypse'. Disciplined chanting at the front of the march was followed up by assorted samba beats and other sounds further down the long trail of demonstrators.

Hundreds of cyclists, meanwhile, started the day early, gathering at Lincolns Inn Fields and progressing via the offices of Greenergy for an agrofuels protest organised by Biofuelwatch, the offices of EON for a protest against New Coal, and finally the Department of Transport to call for sustainable transport. They joined the marchers in Grosvenor Square just ten minutes before they started off.

Just before the march there was also a Climate Change Service at Hinde Street church

In Parliament Square speakers included Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, who promised that his party would not neglect the need to takle climate change in the face of the global recession. Caroline Lucas, leader of the Green Party, spoke with her usual eloquence on the need for a New Green Deal, while John McDonnel, the Labour MP whose constituency includes Heathrow, spoke passionately about the building alliance between climate campaigners and his constituents who were resisting Heathrow's expansion. Other speakers included Kirsty Wright from the World Development Movement speaking on 'No New Coal', Almuth Ernsting from Biofuelwatch on the damage caused by agrofuels, Jonathan Neal from CCC on a Green New Deal, Mark Dowd from Operation Noah, Muzammal Hussain from the London Islamic Network for the Environment, Korshed Alam an activist from Bangladesh, Mel from the Climate Camp, Matthew Williams from the UK Youth Climate Coalition, and finally Phil Thornhill, the National Coordinator of CCC, to wind up the speches. Meanwhile Nick Hutton, CCC Treasurer gave an impassioned appeal for cash (or better standing orders)- the CCC can't continue the work it does without it - and everyone was warmed up by some fantastic tunes from from 'Seize the Day'.

A letter was handed in to Downing Street by Jonathan Essex, Christine Taylor, Ruth, Helen, Sophie and Thomas Jarman. See the letter at http://www.campaigncc.org/resources/downingstreetletter.doc.

Later on demonstrators thawed out at the After-Party in the Synergy Centre

The Climate March on Parliament had four main themes - 1) NO to a 3rd runway at Heathrow and the runaway expansion in aviation expansion. 2) NO new coal - no new coal-fired power stations as planned at eg Kingsnorth in Kent 3) NO to the expansion of agrofuels - with negative impacts on forests, the climate and world food supply. 4) YES to a renewable energy revolution and green jobs - a "Green new Deal"

The Climate March also marked the Saturday midway through the UN Climate Talks in Poznan, Poland and we made our demands on the UK government in solidarity with the world's poorest and most vulnerable communities that will suffer worst and most immediately from climate change caused overwhelmingly by the rich long-industrialised countries.