Climate movement
The climate movement is a global social movement focused on pressuring governments and industry to take action (also called "climate action") addressing the causes and impacts of climate change. Environmental non-profit organizations have engaged in significant climate activism since the late 1980s and early 1990s, as they sought to influence the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).[1] Climate activism has become increasingly prominent over time, gaining significant momentum during the 2009 Copenhagen Summit and particularly following the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2016.[2]
Environmental organizations take various actions such as Peoples Climate Marches. A major event was the global climate strike in September 2019 organized by Fridays For Future and Earth Strike.[3] The target was to influence the climate action summit organized by the UN on 23 September.[4] According to the organizers four million people participated in the strike on 20 September.[5] Youth activism and involvement has played an important part in the evolution of the movement after the growth of the Fridays For Future strikes started by Greta Thunberg in 2019.[2] In 2019, Extinction Rebellion organized large protests demanding to "reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2025, and create a citizens' assembly to oversee progress", including blocking roads.[6]
History[edit]
Since the early 1970s, climate activists have called for more effective political action regarding climate change and other environmental issues. In 1970, Earth Day was the first large-scale environmental movement that called for the protection of all life on earth.[7] The Friends of Earth organisation was also founded in 1970.[8]
Activism related to climate change continued in the late 1980s,[9] when major environmental organizations became involved in the discussions about climate, mainly in the UNFCCC framework. Whereas environmental organizations had previously primarily been engaged at the domestic level, they began to increasingly engage in international campaigning.[9]
The largest transnational climate change coalition, Climate Action Network, was founded in 1992.[10] Its major members include Greenpeace, WWF, Oxfam and Friends of the Earth.[10] Climate Justice Now! and Climate Justice Action, two major coalitions, were founded in the lead-up to the 2009 Copenhagen Summit.[10]
Between 2006 and 2009, the Campaign against Climate Change and other British organisations staged a series of demonstrations to encourage governments to make more serious attempts to address climate change.[8]
The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen was the first UNFCCC summit in which the climate movement started showing its mobilization power at a large scale. According to Jennifer Hadden, the number of new NGOs registered with the UNFCCC surged in 2009 in the lead-up to the Copenhagen summit.[1] Between 40,000 and 100,000 people attended a march in Copenhagen on December 12 calling for a global agreement on climate.[11] Activism went beyond Copenhagen, with more than 5,400 rallies and demonstrations took place around the world simultaneously.[12]
In 2019, activists, most of whom were young people, participated in a global climate strike to criticise the lack of international and political action to address the worsening impacts of climate change.[13] Greta Thunberg, a 19-year-old activist from Sweden, became a figurehead for the movement.[13]