This Saturday, 15th November, thousands of people from across Ireland joined the National Climate Demonstration in Dublin, calling for stronger government actions to end the fossil fuel era. This march was organised by the Stop Climate Chaos coalition consisting of more than 30 civil society organisations, including Friends of the Earth, Oxfam Ireland, Trócaire, and AMLÉ. The event formed part of a global wave of climate demonstrations taking place worldwide in cities from New York to New Delhi.
Marchers moved from the Garden of Remembrance to Molesworth Street, crossing O’Connell bridge in a vibrant procession of citizens, immigrants, environmental organisations and student groups. The route concluded outside the Dáil – the lower house of Irish Parliament, located between Trinity and St Stephen’s Green – where invited speakers and climate activists gave inspiring speeches from 2:30 p.m. onwards. The demonstration ended at 3:20 p.m. after a speech from Thomas Oisín Morelli, an activist from the Stop Shannon LNG coalition.
This demonstration was timed to align with COP30, the UN’s annual climate change conference where representatives from 198 countries, business leaders, scientists and activists come together to assess progress towards limiting global warming at 1.5 °C and negotiate new measures to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change impacts. This year’s summit will take place in Belém, Brazil, from 10 to 21 November 2025. Governments were required to submit updated national climate plans in February, but most have missed the formal deadline, including the EU.
Even though Ireland signed the Paris Agreement a decade ago, the gap between political promises and actual emissions cuts continues to widen. The Stop Climate Chaos coalition urged the Irish Government to deliver faster and fairer climate action. “We need pressure on the Irish government to act in the interests of people and the planet, not corporations,” they said. “This means no new fossil fuel projects, including Liquified Natural Gas infrastructure.”
With 2024 confirmed as the hottest year on record, the urgency of the crisis has never been clearer. Reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warn that warming beyond 1.5°C will inflict extreme heatwaves, wildfires, storms and floods, threatening the core existence of our civilization.
“Climate action can no longer be treated as an afterthought,” shared Amelia Lown and Bryan Malone from AMLÉ, the national students’ union. “The current measures in place are insufficient to address the scale and urgency of the climate crisis. Students are calling on the government to prioritise meaningful environmental policy, placing the protection of people and the planet at the centre of national decision-making.”
Following the march to the Dáil, several key activists delivered moving speeches, namely, Seán Farrell, Sadhbh O’Neill, Ailbhe Smyth, Faten Alsourani, and Thomas Morelli. The speakers discussed critical topics surrounding the lack of government action, genocide, energy poverty, resource exploitation, and the need for justice and action. Ailbhe Smyth says “we wish, but we are not holding our breath for much headway at COP30 because of the greed and utter indifference to human suffering and planetary destruction.” She adds that our own government is complicit.
One of the acute issues is the approval for the development of a state-led facility with an emergency reserve of Liquified Natural Gas. Thomas Oisín Morelli has argued that LNG is the biggest climate issue facing Ireland at the moment. This fossil fuel is extracted by fracking, releasing radioactive matter that causes diseases like cancer, pollutes water supplies and devastates the surrounding environment. The transportation, cooling and storage is extremely emission-intensive. “LNG has a carbon footprint 33 times higher than coal,” Thomas Oisín Morelli said on the stage, “but if it is fracked, the actual emissions will be 44 times higher than coal. If the Irish government gives the grant, its annual emissions will increase by 10 million tonnes per year. This will undue any progress that we are making on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This will basically mean that we, as a country, are giving up climate crisis mitigation. Everyone here knows this is unacceptable for us, Ireland’ s future generations and the world.”
Ireland has shown climate leadership in the past, becoming the first country in the world to divest all government investment from coal, oil and gas companies. However, it is now falling short of its current climate targets. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that Ireland is likely to meet only half of its emissions reduction obligation under the EU Effort Sharing Regulation. “If our government was serious about tackling the climate crisis,” Sadhbh O’ Neill (the first speaker) said, “ they would be landing solar panels on every roof top, and giving priority to public transport, cycling and walking in every climate ambition, in every investment and across all the government policies. We can have it all.
The locals we interviewed showed fierce determination for climate action. A woman named Davie from Shankill was particularly adamant about the lack of change on the governance front. She says she is concerned about the climate crisis and worries for her grandchildren and shows us their picture. She says their home in Minneapolis is getting “hotter and hotter”. “We’ve got to do something, we have too much talking and not much action!” She made a real impact on us when she showed us her own knitted scarf – the coloured blue to red wool reflecting the stark change in average annual global temperature from 1850 to 2020. She says she is on the lookout for a darker shade of red.
Local Joe Murphey attended the protest because he says he is worried about climate change’s effect on the world and how future generations will cope as they will “suffer more than my age group”. When asked about how he felt, he says that when we are with other likeminded people “it gives you heart”. He feels positive as he believes that campaigns can grow to be powerful and already he sees change amongst the people, the media, and politicians. He thinks that “Ireland is doing a little bit at the moment” especially with alternative energy sources, but “there’s an awful lot more that can happen”.
We also had the pleasure of interviewing the CEO of Trocaire and MC of the climate demonstration – Seán Farrell. When asked about his expectations from the government, Farrell says that “we know what the solutions are to the climate crisis… we need implementations… we need fossil fuel transitions to go faster.” He calls for “justice for those who are really affected by the climate crisis globally.” Trocaire works with some of the poorest communities in the world. He states that those who have done the least to cause the climate crisis suffer the most. In a final statement, Farrell says we need to prioritise people and justice over profit.
While there can be much anger, anxiousness and hopelessness in the face of the climate crisis, movements like this one are a symbol of unity and cohesion. Thousands from across the country gathered to demand for change and an end to the fossil fuel era. Together, we are thousands of voices as one, and together, we can shout for change. Shout louder everyone!
