Temperatures are rising. 2023 will be the hottest year on record. In the last 12 months, rising global temperatures brought extreme heat waves across southern Europe, Asia and in the Americas. Severe floods hit many countries from Greece to China, the US to Libya – where two dams failed and killed many thousands. Apocalyptic wildfires, storms and droughts struck again and again across the globe.

As the world heats up, extreme weather events on every continent are becoming more frequent and more destructive, leaving behind mass devastation and loss of life and livelihoods in communities around the world.

Corporate profits are rising. If we’re to have any hope of a liveable planet and tackling the climate crisis, we must dramatically and immediately reduce the use of fossil fuels – and overturn the systems of extraction, exploitation and oppression fuelling this crisis. But the profits keep going up.

In 2022, five oil and gas giants made combined profits of over £150 billion. The world’s 722 biggest companies made more than $1 trillion on the back of soaring energy prices and increasing interest rates. Energy prices in Britain are double what they were two years ago, while wages and benefits lag far behind rises in the cost of living.

This year, the UK government plans to approve 100 new licences for oil and gas in the North Sea and granted Norwegian firm Equinor permission to drill Rosebank, the biggest undeveloped oil field. Tax handouts mean hundreds of millions lost from the public purse, while new oil and gas will be sold on international markets – fuelling profits and doing nothing to reduce our energy bills.

Prices will keep rising, corporate profits will keep rising and the world will keep burning – unless we rise.

We’ll rise in our communities. We will replace the destructive, expensive fossil fuel economy with a real alternative: one that puts people and nature first in all our communities, while creating secure, well-paying unionised jobs. We can take advantage of cheap, renewable energy to cut bills. We can keep everyone warm through winter by insulating our homes. We can build accessible, affordable public transport to link our communities and cut disease from air pollution.

We’ll rise across the country. We will call out our leaders’ climate hypocrisy. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says Britain is a ‘world-leader’ on climate, but approved developing the Rosebank oil field – equal to the annual emissions of 28 poorest countries combined. UN climate negotiations at COP28 this year will be presided over by an oil executive in the United Arab Emirates. We won’t let a tiny club of leaders and industrialists in wealthy countries ramp up fossil fuel production, while lecturing the rest of the world on climate action.

We’ll rise on a global level. We will stand with communities in the global South who are suffering from the climate crisis, which they did not create, and which does the greatest damage to countries already burdened by the legacy of colonialism and unjust debt. Rich nations must provide urgent climate finance and reparations for loss and damage.

We won’t allow climate breakdown to be used to bind these countries further into debt, or create further exploitation. Nor in these times of increased crisis and conflict will we allow migrants and the most vulnerable to be used as scapegoats. We’ll continue to organise around 2 key principles: the right to stay, to defend communities from the impacts of climate change, and the right to move, safely and with dignity when staying is not possible. We will stand together and for human rights.

As world leaders gather in the UAE for COP28, the Climate Justice Coalition is calling for mobilisations across Britain on 9 December.

Demonstrate, rally, hand out leaflets, hold a stall – join or organise an action in your local community. Together, we’ll send a clear message. It’s our time: Now We Rise.

Our 9 December Day of Action is supported by:

Climate Justice Coalition
Climate Justice Coalition Ireland
Stop Climate Chaos Scotland
Climate Cymru
War on Want
Friends of the Earth EWNI
Friends of the Earth Scotland
Extinction Rebellion
Global Justice Now
Uplift UK
Public and Commercial Services Union
Campaign Against Climate Change
Faith for the Climate
Quakers
Islamic Relief
CAFOD
Christian Aid
Platform
Fairtrade Foundation
Medact
Platform
Viva!
Fossil Free London
ActionAid

And more to be announced!