Climate campaigners take to the streets of Durham for COP30

CAMPAIGNERS in Durham staged the UK’s first Climate March For Justice event at the weekend, ahead of COP30 beginning in Brazil this week.

This coming Saturday, marches will be held across the country on a national day of action to focus attention on the international meeting being held in South America as leaders around the world seek ways they can jointly tackle the climate crisis.

But with the city of Durham set to be teeming with visitors for light spectacular Lumiere this weekend, the Climate Action Durham group decided to hold their rally a week early.

Richard Lilly, chair of Climate Action Durham, said: “It was the practical thing to do, and I think it’s a bit of an honour to host the very first Climate Justice rally in what will be a big nationwide event on Saturday, November 22nd.”

Dozens of marchers took part in the walk from Framwellgate Bridge through the city’s streets, across Elvet Bridge to the Elvet Methodist Church in Old Elvet to listen to speakers exploring the climate emergency and the positive actions that can be taken to tackle it.

Northumberland-based Craig Stewart, the TUC’s project officer on Futureproofing Industry, talked about the value of well-paid green jobs to the North East.

He explained how the crisis was also an opportunity for the region’s communities to build a better and more prosperous future on the back of renewable energy and the long-term jobs they would create.

Simona Capisani, associate professor of environmental philosophy at Durham University, gave a presentation showing how the world is the hottest it has been in 125,000 years, that record amounts of CO2 continue to be pumped into the atmosphere and that almost 50,000 species are threatened with extinction as a result.

She drew attention to the way that the richest countries and richest individuals, and corporations, were fuelling the climate crisis – that it would take someone in the bottom 99% income bracket 1,500 years on average to generate as much carbon as a billionaire does in a single year. 

But she also offered a hopeful message on how collective, grassroots action can potentially make a difference.

In all, around 80-100 took part in the Climate Justice March before attending the talks at the church.

Climate Action Durham chair, Richard Lilly, said: “The walk definitely made an impact and one of the things that was pleasing during the march towards Elvet Bridge was seeing all the young people in the cafes on either side joining in with the chants.

“The desire to see governments act on climate change is a genuine one, especially among young people, and climate change and biodiversity loss are not going to go away just because people deny them.

“ Investing in green jobs and fairer communities is the only way to bring social and climate justice to our planet. 

“The cost of doing nothing now and leaving the mess for our children and grandchildren to pay for will be far greater than the cost of acting now. We need to decide how much we care.”