A coalition of environmental activists, political parties, trade unions, community groups and more will come together for a climate justice protest in Galway City tomorrow during the COP26 Conference.
The COP26 Coalition Galway is holding a rally this Saturday, November 6 down at the Spanish Arch, to coincide with other rallies taking place around the country.
This is in response to the COP26 summit taking place in Glasgow this week, and aims to pressure governments to immediate action on the climate and biodiversity crises.
It will be among the hundreds of protests held across the world on 6 November in response to the call for large-scale global mobilisations for climate action issued by the COP26 coalition, based in Glasgow but with international support.
In Ireland alone, rallies will take place in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Belfast as well as Galway this Saturday.
Speakers at the Galway rally will include Caroline Stanley (Friends of Merlin Woods), Marian Spelman (Galway Trades Council), Derrick Hambleton (An Taisce), Zerhanah Walsh (People Before Profit), Sinéad Brady (Social Democrats), Andrew Ó Baoill (Labour Party) and others to be confirmed.
A spokesperson for the COP26 Coalition Galway said “The demands put forward by COP26 Coalition Ireland will be crucial internationally in limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 °c – anything above this means that the climate crisis will be not only disastrous but catastrophic.”
“Current government and corporation targets of ‘Net Zero’ by 2050 don’t put us anywhere on track to achieve this, as they involve continued pollution alongside inadequate ‘carbon offsets’.”
“Instead, we need to achieve ‘Real Zero’ by rapidly reducing current emissions, prohibiting new fossil fuel investments and infrastructure and saying no to carbon markets and risky unproven technologies that allow countries and corporations to continue polluting.”
In Ireland, the COP26 Coalition includes environmental activists, political parties, trade unions, grassroots community groups, faith communities, students’ unions, migrant and racial justice networks, feminist campaigns and small farmers’ organisations.
The core demands of COP26 Coalition Ireland are investment in green jobs and a just transition for workers, free, green and frequent public transport, a moratorium on building data centres, a ban on investment in new fossil fuel infrastructure, including LNG terminals, and sustainable agriculture and a just transition for small farmers.
The COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference began at Glasgow last weekend, and is due to continue to November 12.
The stakes are extremely high here, as many have said that this is the last big chance for coordinated and meaningful global action to reduce emissions and keep global warming in check.
Small countries such as Pacific Island nations, the most vulnerable to rising sea levels, have been the most strident in saying that larger, industrial economies need to do far more than they currently are to reduce their emissions.
Ireland published its Climate Action Plan this week, which between its various ambitions, aims to cut carbon emissions by 51% by the year 2050.
