Climate change impacts everyone, everywhere – but the effects of climate change are not distributed equally. Frontline communities, from across the United States and the Global South, are most vulnerable to climate change and must therefore play an integral role in planning for transformational change.
In the winter of 2014, NYC-EJA, our members and other key partners began organizing a response to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s call for world leaders to gather at a global Climate Summit in September 2014. That response became the People’s Climate March – the cornerstone of a week of grassroots action in response to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s challenge.
People’s Climate March Wrap-Up
Disruption
People’s Climate Justice Summit
The Climate Justice Alliance, including the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, Indigenous Environmental Network and other allies, hosted a two-day People’s Climate Justice Summit following the People’s Climate March in September 2014. The summit was concurrent with the Climate Leaders Assembly convened by the UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon in New York City. The Summit delegates convened at the UN Church Center, directly across the street from the UN, and the proceedings were live-streamed for public viewing at The New School on both days. The Summit convened a meeting of frontline community delegations from across the U.S. and around the world – that are both organizing against the root causes of climate change, and cultivating real solutions to address these causes. For more information see archived videos of the People Climate Justice Summit.
Accomplishments
- On May 20th, 2014, NYC-EJA helped organize a People’s Climate March planning meeting of 200+ local and regional environmental justice groups, community-based organizations, labor unions, organizers, artists, and environmental advocates.
- On July 1, 2014, NYC-EJA helped organized a meeting of over 500 people at the New School for Social Research to help plan the People’s Climate March.
- On September 10, 2014, NYC-EJA helped organize a 1,000 participant convening at the New York Ethical Culture Society to discuss last minute preparations for the march.
- With an estimated 400,000 participants, 1,500 organizational sponsors, and over 2,000 solidarity marches and rallies across the globe, the Peoples Climate March became the largest climate march in history on September 21, 2014.
Read the The People’s Climate March 2014: A Climate Justice Story by the Climate Justice Alliance and Grassroots Global Justice