With so many governments delaying or backtracking on climate action, a new movement has resolved to take matters into its own hands.

Samuel Martín-Sosa* explains how the Glasgow Agreement intends to set the agenda by creating an inventory of polluting infrastructure and through direct action.

The COVID-19 pandemic came at a historic moment of social mobilisation against the climate crisis. The half a million people who demonstrated on the streets of Madrid during the UN’s COP25 climate conference, in December 2019, was the icing on a months-long journey.

Last year, the climate emergency jumped from the streets – where new movements such as Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion and By2020WeRiseUp suddenly emerged – to the institutions, with several national and regional governments and parliaments officially declaring a “climate emergency”, while a “green wave” was observed at the 2019 European Parliament elections. In the movement for climate justice, there was a certain feeling that the mobilisations had led to a qualitative leap that brought us into a new phase of climate activism.

While protesters were causing gridlock outside, negotiations at the COP25 reached an impasse and came to a standstill that led to a disappointing non-outcome. The contrast between the dynamism on the streets and the ossification in the corridors of power made one thing clear to us: civil society cannot continue waiting. We need to take the lead and take responsibility for action.

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