Glasgow demands climate justice as COP29 takes place

Climate campaigners held a rally in Glasgow today (16 November) to demand climate justice, while world leaders are meeting in Azerbaijan for COP29.

Protesters gathered at the Buchanan Street steps where groups including Divest Strathclyde, Time to Divest Glasgow, Extinction Rebellion Glasgow, Parents for Future Scotland and Edinburgh Climate Coalition gave speeches about ending fossil fuel funding to build a better future. 

The activists also performed songs and dances, including a rewrite of Abba classic Money, Money, Money and ‘500 Miles’ by the Proclaimers to call on the UK Government to pay its fair share of the climate debt owed to countries in the Global South that are most impacted by the climate emergency. Determining how the costs of climate action will be met is a key issue that will be discussed at the UN climate talks in Azerbaijan. 

The campaigners were also calling for local action. They want the Strathclyde Pension Fund to stop funding BP and other fossil fuel companies that are driving climate breakdown and that are complicit in the genocide in Palestine. This has been a long-standing campaign which Glasgow councillors voted in favour of in 2021, but still hasn’t been enacted.

The rally is one of over 25 actions taking place in the UK and 150 worldwide for the COP29 Global Days of Action for Climate Justice. It takes place amidst widespread disillusionment with the COP process. This year’s summit, held in Baku, Azerbaijan, has already faced outrage after the COP29 President was caught promising to broker fossil fuel deals.

Sally Clark, divestment campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland, said:

“Three years on from COP26 in Glasgow, it’s more urgent than ever that world leaders take real action to limit further climate breakdown. The UK needs to pay its fair share for that action, as a wealthy country that has more historic responsibility for the crisis.

“Here in Glasgow, the Strathclyde Pension Fund should commit to divesting from fossil fuels. Councils must play their part in protecting the long-term future of their employees by ending their support for gas, coal and oil, and investing in building a cleaner, safer future for us all.

“Our protest today has just been one of over a hundred that have taken place. We are standing in solidarity with people around the world who are already suffering the impacts of climate breakdown, and we are demanding that our so-called leaders take action for climate justice now.”

Cathy Allen from Stop EACOP Edinburgh said:

“We watch COP29 in disgust as the Global North with its fossil fuel giants at the helm, push back from paying their climate bill to the most affected and least responsible. A minimum of $5.5 trillion a year is due to the Global South, but the rich world baulks at a demand even for just $1 trillion. Since profit is the only language the oil companies speak, how will we ever change their trajectory unless we take money off them to pay some of their vast debt to humanity? And how will any of us shake off our shame in our country’s complicity in imposing mass suffering until we unite behind these minimal demands of the Global South.”

Myke Hall, 37, writer and XR Scotland activist, said: 

“While we hold great respect for those attending COP29 to speak up for marginalised voices like indigenous peoples of colonised nations, or the people of Pacific islands and other people and places most affected by climate breakdown, we have zero faith in the COP29 process to deliver the kind of global change necessary to mitigate ecological collapse. With a lack of global leadership, we must all take action in our local areas, to make sure the fossil fuel era comes to an end swiftly, with fair considerations for the workers and others affected by the transition.”

Tyrone Scott, Senior Movement Building and Activism Officer at War on Want, said:

“Right now, millions of people are facing the worst effects of climate breakdown, predominantly in countries across the Global South. Our global reliance on fossil fuels have driven our climate and ecosystems to the brink of collapse whilst earning trillions for the fossil fuel industry.
“At the same time, these same fossil fuel companies that are profiting from extracting and polluting – driving climate breakdown – are also profiting from funnelling oil to Israel; oil that Israel is then using in its genocide of the Palestinian people. We must end our reliance on fossil fuels, ensure the UK pays its fair share in finance and demand an end to the genocide. There is no climate justice without human rights.”