Independent climate activists have returned to Cheltenham Promenade to hold a climate vigil during COP-27. They previously did this for COP-26 last year. The idea is to hold a vigil for the environment to raise awareness about climate change and our dying planet. Protests have taken place all over the UK throughout the UN Climate Summit currently taking place in Egypt. UN secretary general Antonio Guterres addressed world leaders at the opening of the conference, saying humanity is on a “highway to climate hell”.
Activist Anne Knight-Elliott says the protesters are placing themselves outside the Cheltenham Borough Council building every day during COP-27 to ‘’Remind the council that climate change is still an issue and they did declare a climate emergency in 2019.
When asked what the effect of the vigil has been so far, Jerry Barr said “We’ve had very mixed public reactions, most people actually are quite receptive, but there are those who say ‘no thank you’ or ‘I’m alright’, which is an interesting response to which I’m tempted to say jack.”
Barr went on to say that he thinks Cheltenham Council are doing much more than Tewkesbury Council, as he’s recently relocated from there, and that they are taking measures but “only time will tell” if they’re enough.
When talking about last year’s vigil, Elliott-Knight said that a lot of the feedback from the public was about the desire for more cycling and walking provisions, but she’s “not really sure things have advanced greatly on that front, and we would like to see more help with that”.
Commenting on the public awareness of climate change and how its progressed, Anne said ‘People are very much aware of it and it seems it can go either way, either it makes them proactive and want to make changes or people are scared and nervous and they bury their head in the sand. It’s a big, scary issue, especially for young people”. Both activists were also critical of COP-27, with Barr saying “it seems to be a little negative, frankly, I’m not too impressed. The last few days will tell.”
The activists will be on the Promenade for the remaining days of COP-27, which ends on November 18th.
