As COP 30 began in Belém, Brazil, Climate Justice campaigners marched in Sheffield, part of a Global Day of Action held in over 50 cities across the UK and 27 countries around the world.
As people turned out to protest for climate justice, Rotherham Station was closed due to the threat of flooding from Storm Claudia and in Wales, the unfortunate residents of Monmouth were forced to flee their homes as the River Monnow burst its banks.
In Sheffield, the march was led by the 5 Rivers Rising Samba Fusion Band. Close behind, people masked as politicians such as Keir Starmer, Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, and Rachel Reeves tossed a giant globe around, showing their contempt for our planet. Meanwhile, Zackman (dressed like Batman with a Zack Polanski mask) did his best to rescue the planet.
Many organisations joined the Climate Justice Coalition to make the march a success, including Extinction Rebellion, the National Education Union, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the Methodist Church, Global Justice Now, Sheffield Action on Plastic, Better Buses, Stand up to Racism, Dignity not Detention and Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Marchers had very loud and simple messages for the Government. Tax the Rich! Refugees are welcome! Tell the truth!
Lucinda Wakefield from the Climate Justice Coalition welcomed the marchers to a sodden Devonshire Green. She said, “For over 30 years, political leaders and corporations have talked about protecting the planet, but their actions betray their words, shaping global climate policy to protect their profit and not the people or the world we live in. Activists from the Amazon to Sri Lanka, from the occupied Palestinian territory to the UK, are showing that people power can and must change the course of history. Here in the UK, we can show that tackling the cost of living and tackling the climate crisis do go hand in hand, and that urgent action is affordable if we make the rich pay.
Rev Romeo Pedro, the Superintendent of the Sheffield Methodist Circuit, said, “We must raise our voices so loudly that governments cannot ignore them. We must push policies that match the scale of the crisis. Morality, not politics, should guide their decisions.”
A speaker from City of Sanctuary spoke up for the refugees who flee war and climate disasters. She said climate change is a result of political and economic decisions made by a powerful few. The United Nations has reported more than 150 climate disasters last year. Hurricane Melissa devastated Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba, impacting nearly 1.5 million people. Catastrophic floods struck Pakistan. Typhoons hit the Philippines. Tornadoes struck southern Brazil.
I explained that the first catastrophic climate tipping point was reached this year. Warm water coral reefs now face widespread dieback, causing food insecurity not just for those who depend on the fishing but also for people worldwide. The poorest will suffer most from the consequences.
The amount of carbon in the atmosphere grew by record amounts this year. Why this sudden increase? We are still adding far too much CO2 to the atmosphere, but what has changed is the planet’s ability to absorb it. Half of our CO2 is absorbed by the forests, oceans and soils before it has a chance to escape to the atmosphere. But these carbon sinks are beginning to fail because of the increase in drought, wildfires and floods. So the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing even more, risking us reaching more irreversible tipping points such as the collapse of AMOC.
Sahar spoke about the genocide in Gaza and climate change. She said that during the first 15 months of the genocide, the conflict produced more CO2 emissions than 36 countries. Human rights groups have reported the use of white phosphorus munitions by the Israeli army, raising grave concerns about environmental contamination, soil toxicity, and serious harm to civilians. Climate justice demands that environmental destruction in conflict zones be treated as a climate security issue.
Jenny Patient from South Yorkshire Climate Alliance focused on inequality. “50 families in the UK now have more wealth than half the UK population.” She criticised the Mayor of South Yorkshire for partnering with weapons manufacturers. “To tackle the climate crisis, we need to stop manufacturing arms and switch to socially useful production. Let’s work together to get investment in what our communities need and stop our leaders using our resources to promote climate change and war.
Emma from the NEU explained why climate is a class issue. “It’s a class issue when you can’t afford your heating bills, when you can’t afford food to feed your children, when the filthy air that your children breathe is making them sick. Climate is a class issue when you’re forced to work through heat waves, floods, and windstorms. There are no workers on a dead planet. So the trade union movement has launched a year of action. Climate justice is workers’ justice. And around the world, workers, indigenous people and young people are rising up. If you look at the Gen Zed protests, that’s where the hope lies.”
Afterwards, drenched campaigners warmed up in Victoria Hall, listening to songs from the Climate Choir and visiting stalls from the participating groups.
Here are the speeches from the rallies
Lucinda
But my name’s Lucinda Wakefield and I’m the Sheffield Trade Union Council climate coordinator as well as the Climate Justice Coalition South Yorkshire coordinator. And I want to thank you all for coming on such a miserable day. Less miserable than yesterday, but we are in for snow apparently in the coming week. So, I think that tells you all about the world that we’re living in at the moment under the climate. But as we know, COP 30 in Belém has started and has in a time when humanity has entered an era of climate overshoot where global temperatures have breached the 1.5° C threshold. And we’ve already seen an inspiring amount of activity and action in Belém, with hundreds of boats joining a flotilla to the people’s summit. That’s the counter summit, our summit. But for over 30 years in COP, political leaders and multinational corporations have talked about protecting the planet, but their actions betray their words, shaping global climate policy to protect their profit and not the people or the world we live in. So today, climate justice groups are taking to the streets in locations from the Amazon to the continents across the the world. In Great Britain, there are more than 17 cities and towns that like us are joining the call for climate justice. And the people’s summit in Belém is a reminder of what global solidarity looks like in practice. Communities coming together across borders to claim their space in shaping our shared future. Activists from the Amazon to Sri Lanka, from the occupied Palestinian territory to the UK, are showing that people power can and must change the course of history. Here in the UK, we can show that tackling the cost of living and tackling the climate crisis do go hand in hand and that urgent action is affordable if we make the rich pay. So, I got three speakers for you today. I just get my details. The first, excuse me. The first one, I’m very pleased to welcome Romeo Pedro, who’s the Superintendent Minister of the Sheffield Methodist Church.
Rev Romeo Pedro-Methodist Church
Friends, sisters and brothers, I stand here part of a global family that believes God’s creation is essentially good, that every person bears the image of God, and that justice is at the heart of faith, any type of faith. For many years, we have said that God calls us to care for the earth and all its people. Today at this COP 30 march, that calling feels more urgent than ever. We are no longer talking about distant risks. We are talking about present suffering from devastating floods in the UK, to wildfires across Europe, to rising seas that threaten communities in the global south who have done the least to cause this crisis. Creation is crying out and so are the poorest and most vulnerable among us. I believe that faith without action is empty. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, once said, “Do all the good you can.” That is not a gentle suggestion. It’s a moral summons. Today, doing good means demanding courage from world leaders. It means refusing to accept slow promises, tough measures or convenient excuses. It means insisting on climate justice. Climate justice means recognising that the climate crisis is not only an environmental issue. It’s a human one. It is about families who lose their homes, farmers who lose their crops, and children whose futures are being shaped by decisions made in rooms they will never enter. Justice means loss and damage finance that is real, reliable, and fair. It means rapid transitions away from fossil fuels, not someday, but now. It means holding wealthy nations, including our own, accountable for the responsibilities we bear. I’ve seen somebody saying the climate culprits must pay. As people, we march in hope, but not passive hope. Hope is active, determined, in my case, rooted in God’s promises that renewal and transformation are possible. It’s not optimism that things will simply sort themselves out. It’s the belief that when people come together, when compassion overrules convenience and courage overrules fear, change can happen. Today, our hope is strengthened by everyone who’s involved in this fight. Children who refuse to be silent. Faith communities who recognise that protecting God’s creation is not optional. Scientists who speak truth with integrity. Indigenous leaders who protect land with courage and citizens who understand that we share one planet, one atmosphere, one hope. But hope, my friends, alone is not enough. We must raise our voices so loudly that governments cannot ignore them. We must must push policies that match the scale of the crisis. We must hold our leaders to their promises and remind them that morality, not politics, should guide their decisions. And for those of us on this march today, we must look inward at our own organisations, too. We must continue reducing our own emissions, supporting climate vulnerable communities, divesting from fossil fuels, and teaching our children and communities that creation care is part of our everyday living. We must pray, yes, but we must also act, advocate, organise, and stand in solidarity with our global neighbours. So today my friends let us march with purpose. Let us march with love. Let us march with the conviction that things can and must be different. And let us remind the world that when are not on the sidelines of this struggle, we are right here walking, speaking, demanding and believing that by God’s grace another way is possible. Thank you my friends and may we go forward to justice and hope.
Graham – Extinction Rebellion
I’ve been campaigning on the climate and nature crisis since the early 1980s. Never in my worst nightmares did I expect that I’d be standing here 40 years later as the planet is beginning to experience catastrophic, irreversible tipping points, while humanity continues to add greenhouse gases to our atmosphere as if it didn’t matter. Worse than that, the Conservatives, Reform, and idiots like Trump, are promoting burning even more fossil fuels.
Extinction Rebellion was founded 7 years ago. Do you remember the road blocks, occupying the bridges in London, the school strikes? We believed things could change and change fast, as the climate emergency demanded. One of our demands at the time was to achieve Net Zero by 2025. But despite all the COPS, politicians have utterly failed to protect us and the planet.
We were so right to demand net zero by 2025. Let’s take a quick look at the latest science.
The first catastrophic tipping point was reached this year. Warm water coral reefs have suffered from repeated mass bleaching due to rising temperatures. They now face widespread dieback, causing food insecurity not just for those who depend on the fishing but also for people worldwide, as food supplies decrease and food inflation rises. The poorest will suffer most from the consequences.
The amount of carbon in the atmosphere continues to grow, but this year it grew by record amounts. Why this sudden increase? We are still adding far too much CO2 to the atmosphere, but what has changed is the planet’s ability to absorb it. Half of our CO2 is absorbed by the forests, oceans and soils before it has a chance to escape to the atmosphere. But these carbon sinks are beginning to fail because of the increase in drought, wildfires and floods. So the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing even more.
So temperatures will continue to rise. We are already at 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, and there is no sign of any slowing down. We are perilously close to catastrophic tipping points, which could kick in at any time.
One such tipping point is the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or AMOC. AMOC is the ocean current system that brings warm water from the tropics to the North Atlantic and takes cooler water back again. It is why our country has such a mild climate. The collapse of AMOC is no longer considered a low-likelihood event.
If AMOC collapses, it will have catastrophic effects everywhere. For us in Northern Europe, it could mean a reduction in average temperatures of over 5C. This would plunge us into a constant winter, making agriculture almost impossible.
South Yorkshire, like the rest of the country, is totally unprepared for such a disaster.
Of course, this is partly the media’s fault. Most British people are oblivious to the climate threats we face because of the media’s criminal failure to tell us. This is Extinction Rebellion’s other demand. The media and all people in power must tell the truth about the climate and nature emergencies.
I could talk about many other tipping points, but time defeats me. If you want to find out more, do visit the Tell the Truth Sheffield stall in Victoria Hall later and try out some of my activities.
It is the richest 10% of people in this country that are responsible for 2/3s of the emissions. Our enemies arrive in private jets, not small boats. We must unite. Environmental groups, justice groups, refugee groups, solidarity groups, anti-racist groups, Trade Unions, Green Party, Your Party, anybody with any concern for the future of humankind, we have to work together to create positive social tipping points to rebuild our society.
One such Tipping Point that I have to mention is the amazing growth of the Green Party since Zack Polanski became leader. The Greens now have 165,000 members, more than doubling since September and are second in the opinion polls. Amazing transformations like this give us hope for the future. Zack says the Greens are going to replace Labour. Let’s give them the support they need to replace Reform, too!
Sheffield XR meets every 1st and 3rd Monday at 6.45 at Union Street. Please come and join us and support our current campaigns against the insurance companies who support fossil fools and the Water Companies that are ruining our rivers.
Jenny- South Yorkshire Climate Alliance
The Climate Justice Coalition’s call to action says governments of the countries most responsible for the climate crisis spent a record $2.7 trillion in 2024 on the military and war. Yet they’ve pledged less than 800 million, take that in folks, 800 million for loss and damage from climate change. 2.7 trillion 800 million big difference. Much of the money spent on the military is taxpayers’ money, but it was used to profit arms company shareholders. So, I’ve been trying to make sense of this, and one of the ways that we can make sense of it is a report that’s come out about billionaire Britain from the Equality Trust. And what they say is for 35 years, governments in the UK have been trying to decarbonise, end the housing crisis, build new green industries, create stronger communities, etc, the right goals. But it’s not happening because of the growth of inequality and the concentration of wealth. 50 families in the UK now have more wealth than half the UK population. Again, take that in. 50 families, more wealth than 34 million people. Shame. Shame. This is wealth amassed from owning property that makes local housing and business rents unaffordable. This is wealth amassed in financial dealings that make our economy more unstable and extract money from more and more parts of our lives, as I’m sure you’re feeling, such as even creative endeavours are now very much linked to money and finance. These so-called investments are destroying our communities. They’re not solving the nature and climate crisis, the housing crisis, or the crisis that we have in South Yorkshire around pay and skills. So, what can we do in South Yorkshire? What can we do in South Yorkshire to affect this? Is this all about international finance, international national economics, or are there things we can do here in our city and our region? In South Yorkshire, our democratic councils and mayor have handed over a lot of their economic model to the University of Sheffield and their idea of manufacturing development at the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. And what does that research centre do? What it has done is to partner with arms manufacturers, profitable companies making the machinery of death. These are high-carbon industries and they’re exporting death and destruction. This is going in completely the wrong direction for the climate emergency. This is on our patch. It’s not rebuilding our local economy. It’s sucking wealth out. It’s producing nothing useful to show for it. These developments are being subsidised with public money by our mayor.
As the call to action from the climate justice coalition says, the shareholders profiting from fossil fuels, mining, technology, and arms are largely the same, connected via fund management firms like BlackRock. Inviting arms companies to South Yorkshire is adding to climate change and inequality of wealth. To tackle the climate crisis, we need to play a role here. Stop manufacturing arms. switch to socially useful production. Let’s work together to get investment in what our communities need and stop seeing our leaders use our resources to promote climate change and war. Thank you.
Sahar- Palesine Solidarity Campaign
I was invited today. I was asked to speak about the connection between Palestine and Climate Change. In the backdrop of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, it’s easy to see how imperialism silences the Western world on matters, atrocities that are in our hands, and we can do something about, but they refuse to. These are consequences of a global system of power, profit and environmental destruction. A system in which our own governments and institutions are deeply inmeshed. Year after year, we witness the ongoing genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid imposed on the Palestinian people. And year after year, the same powerful states attend the climate conferences one after another while excluding the indigenous people, marginalised communities and those living under occupation or displacement.
This exclusion is not by coincidence but deliberate. In replacement for fossil fuel giants, companies, weapons manufacturers and states that profit from ecological collapse. The same companies, partnerships and states which benefit from the world as we know it burning, are benefiting from the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The Conference of the Parties has long presented itself as a global forum for solutions on climate issues. But we all know it’s a parade of Western countries reigning fake moral and legal supremacy over the rest of the world, while it continues to greenlight, aid and abet the genocide in Palestine. These are the same states that drive global emissions and undermine meaningful climate action at every turn. We really know that if those states really cared about climate action, they could have taken meaningful steps to prevent the destruction of Gaza. Research has shown that the first 15 months of the genocide in Gaza, an estimate of 31 million tons of CO2 emissions, more emissions than 36 entire countries produce in one single year. Shame.
The same militarised system that destabilises our planet are being unleashed on Palestinian communities. And most importantly, we know what the impact of this on the health and well-being of the Palestinian people whose physical and mental health has been destroyed because of this barbaric genocide. The catastrophic impact on health. 90% of the infrastructure in Gaza were ruined. Homes turned to rubble. Hospitals bombed. Hospitals without power. Water supply contaminated. Water resources polluted and networks for water are also ruined. The average water consumption per capita was around 80 litres a day in Gaza. It’s now 5 litres per capita per day and they use it just for drinking. All these atrocities, international organizations and human rights groups have reported the use of white phosphorus munition by Israeli army in Gaza, raising a grave concerns about environmental contamination. Soil toxicity, serious harm to civilians. Climate justice demands that we confront these realities. It demands that environmental destruction in conflict zone be treated as a globally climate security issue. And it demand that communities already facing occuption, blockade, violence not to be let out of a climate finance.
I would just say climate justice means Gaza. Climate justice mean liberation. Free free Palestine. Free free Palestine. Thank you.
Speaker from City of Sanctuary
So I first and foremost want to thank all of you who are here, and especially the children who are here today. The world has endured many genocides. Now we are faced with an ecocide the destruction of our planet itself. As the COP 30 unfolds right, we speak from the City of Sanctuary on behalf of whom? The vulnerable refugees, displaced people and the communities that host them. Developing countries like my country host many refugees. I wouldn’t say many refugees now, unlike the other developing countries. We are the least responsible for the climate crisis, yet they suffer the most. For 30 years, we have been talking about COP. We have had COP talks. For 10 years, we have seen the Paris agreement, and still emissions rise. We are at the tipping point. Climate change is not a natural disaster. It’s a result of political and economic decisions made by a powerful few. That means, (cheers) that means it can be changed. We are here because we can change it. Look at the realities, the ground realities, the effects of climate change. Hurricane Melissa devastated Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba. Dozens, killing dozens, destroying homes and impacting nearly 1.5 million people. In Pakistan, we saw the floods just after 2 years of the catastrophic floods of 2022. This week alone, typhoons hit the Philippines and tornadoes struck southern Brazil. Scientists have warned us we are on the brink of an irreversible catastrophe. I’ve heard that from other speakers as well. That’s the truth. UN reports to global leaders as well as global citizens that us more than 150 major climate disasters in 2024. Yet leaders still failed to act. Shame on them. At COP 30, they will be talking about climate finance. They’re talking about loss and damage. They’re talking about reparations. But it cannot be business as usual. COP 30 must shift, right? Put those grappling with the climate crisis at the centre. Developing countries are struggling to mitigate disaster. They cannot carry this burden alone. So we must help them from the global north. We demand leaders follow the science, honour their commitments, put the people first. Every decision must be rooted in justice and human rights. In July, in July, the ICJ delivered a historic advisory opinion about state obligations to protect the climate system. I don’t want to go into detail, but I advise you all to read that opinion. Climate justice will not happen overnight. It will not happen in one forum. It comes from listening to those who have defended their lands for generations, from Brazil to North America and who are reclaiming them today. We are here in Sheffield to reclaim the climate agenda with people’s voices. That is our voices. The climate crisis can only be solved through bold and collective action. We must change our perspective. I would like to quote Ron Garan, a former US astronaut and author, looking at the Earth from space. He said, “The planet must come first, then society, and then the economy. Because without a healthy planet, there can be no society and without a society there can be no economy. And Dr Martin Luther King (cheers) Yeah. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said in his Christmas sermon in 1967 that, like 70 years ago, as nations and individuals, we are interdependent. So every action we take today will ripple across the world. We can be part of this change, as Sir David Attenborough reminds us. Look after the wild world. Don’t waste food. Don’t waste electricity. Look after the natural world. It is the most precious thing we have, and we are part of it. So let us have the courage to fight for our world, our planet. It is ours. We must own it, and together we are the answer. What do we want now? Climate justice. What do we want now? Climate Justice!
Emma National Education Union
Thanks to Lucinda and thanks to everyone who’s organised today and come along and join our protest. My name’s Emma. I use she/ they pronouns and as an educator, as a trade unionist, as a parent, I am angry, furious, and scared. I’m furious that I can’t look into the eyes of the children I teach and of my own child and tell them that I know that things will be okay, that their future is safeguarded. And I am furious because the pain of the future is the lived experience for millions and millions of children. For the tens of thousands of children of Gaza who’ve been murdered by Israel’s genocidal war. For the Palestinian children who survive who will live with the trauma of war, displacement, death, rubble, toxic asbestos-ridden air, loss of family, loss of limb, loss of childhood. for the tens of thousands of children of the Congo who are forced to work in the cobalt mines that they make the batteries for our phones, for our laptops, for our electric electric vehicles, who are exposed to toxic dust and tunnel collapses and for their children and the families in the Philippines, Jamaica, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brazil and beyond across who have lost their homes, loved ones and live lives to floods, typhoons, hurricanes, droughts, wildfires These are not natural disasters. There’s nothing normal about climate emergency. These are disasters that are caused by the rich and powerful who sit at the top of the capitalist system. The wealthiest 10% are responsible for two-thirds of emissions.
We know as well that the acceleration of AI is fuelling spiking emissions. Not to mention the millions of gallons of water that are required to cool down the data centres, or the nuclear and coal energy being used to fuel AI centres. And the same far-right governments that are attacking refugees, women, the poor, and trans people are spreading the most vicious climate denial and fuelling even further expansion. Trump, shame on you. (Shame), has delivered his promise of drill, baby drill every day. He is lifting more drilling curbs in states from California and Alaska that are already suffering from climate breakdown. Nigel Farage shame (shame). He says there’s no climate crisis. Reform UK want to scrap all climate targets, all green investment, and drive up our energy bills. Trump and Farage blame refugees and immigrants for droughts and hurricanes. Shame on you. Shame and Kier Starmer, shame on you. Under mounting pressure for Trump has now put drilling at RoseBank back on the table. Kier Starmer and Labour, shame on you for echoing the far right and attacking refugees. Shame on you for backing and funding genocide. And shame on you for driving through climate-wrecking policies while pretending to be on the side of climate action at COP 30. We need to unite the movements against racism, against the far right, for a free Palestine, for trans and non-binary people, and for a world that puts people and the planet before profit. And the unity demonstration on the 22nd of November, next weekend, couldn’t be more important. And just in my last minute, I’ll finish on this. As a trade unionist, I say climate is a class issue. Sorry. Climate is a class issue. It’s a class issue when you can’t afford your heating bills. It’s a class issue when you can’t afford food to feed your children. It’s a class issue when the filthy air that your children breathe is making them sick. Climate is a class issue when you’re forced to work through heat waves, floods, and windstorms. And as has been said, there is no workers on a dead planet. And that is why we and the trade union movement have launched a year of action over the climate. Climate justice is workers justice. And around the world, workers are rising up. Indigenous people are rising up. Young people are rising up. If you look at the Gen Zed protests, that’s where the hope lies. The struggle of the masses against the rich and the powerful. So join the protest next weekend. Join the picket lines at Veolia, at Hallam University, at Sheffield University next weekend. Let’s unite the movements. Tonight we’ll be marching from Endcliffe Park to Devonshire Green to reclaim the night. We are the anti-racist, anti-fascist majority who want action over the climate. This is not a drill. We demand climate justice now. Climate justice now. Climate justice now. Climate justice now.
Lucinda-Climate Justice Coalition
Brilliant. Thank you. Thanks to all the speakers. And I especially love the fact that it was all women speaking on this platform today. um especially with the protest going on this evening. So I do urge you to join it if you can. I think it’s despite the weather, I think it’s been brilliant. Thank you for keeping yourselves warm and marching with us. I think the reality for a lot of us is that government’s actions across the world around the climate crisis are not a transition and they are certainly not just. None of what is going on focuses on fossil fuels, on reducing emissions. It is focused on a capital agenda where where and how they can make more money, can expand their profits. We also see as Emma was saying that the narrative being used by the far right. So we have an absolutely massive joint campaign on our hands to bring all of these communities, all of these actions together and I think this must be the year of concrete progress towards a globally just transition. Actually, I think it should be a transformation and that means a fossil fuel phase-out, that benefits ordinary people in the UK and globally. It means overhauling systems that allow polluting corporations and the super-rich to go on profiting and polluting, and making them pay for the damage they have knowingly done to billions globally. If you are a trade unionist, get on board with the trade union year of action. If you’re a campaigning climate campaigning group, get on board with the trade union climate action because we have to be united and support workers in the workplace to fight for a better world. But it will require us to break from the failed resilience on the market and instead invest in a huge expansion of public sector jobs across all sectors. But it has to be our voice on what alternative we want. It has to be our voice that doesn’t let the greenwashing happen. And we could all be a part of that and be confident that young or old in workplaces or in our communities, we can come together because the question is not whether change will happen but it is about who will shape it, and as far as I’m concerned we have to be the ones to shape it, so thank you so much everybody for coming.
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