2023 New York Climate Summit: You Had to Be there for a week of Global Action
There was a week-long Global Climate Summit in New York City beginning Sunday, September 17. According to Democracy Now, the 2023 Global Climate March on Sunday was larger than expected, with fifty to seventy-five thousand participants. People and organizations wanted to send a clear message to the world and leaders coming to NYC for the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly — to end the use of fossil fuels.
High profile speakers included: Congressman Jamaal Bowman (NY-D), Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-D), President of Ireland (1990–97), Mary Robinson and Academy award-winning actress Susan Sarandon. Representative Ocasio-Cortez said in a powerful speech to marchers that in order to be heard, they need to be “too big and too radical to ignore”.
As part of the New York City events and actions, there were over 200 actions around the world leading up to the first-ever United Nations Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday, September 20 with more than 700 grassroots groups calling on President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency, stop all federal approvals for new fossil fuel projects, phase out production of fossil fuels on federal public lands, and build a new clean energy future.
