In the lead-up to COP30 and as world leaders gather in New York for the General Assembly of the United Nations tens of thousands of people across the globe are taking to the streets in a wave of coordinated protests under the banner “Draw the Line” in 93 different countries around the world.
Communities are demanding urgent action from governments to end extracivism and stop fossil fuel expansion, deliver a fast, fair, funded and just transition away from fossil fuels, address the injustices and inequalities driven by the current neo-liberal and imperialistic economic systems and ensure a just transition to a world that protects life.
Workers, women, farmers, fishers, young people, Indigenous Peoples, migrants, refugees, pastoralists, people of color and LGBTI People are rising together to demand system change and reclaim the commons for a world that is in harmony with nature, centred on solutions by and for the people and not on false solutions.
This global moment comes at a critical time when the rich and the powerful countries and corporations continue their colonial and extractivist agenda, while world leaders fail to prevent and stop the genocide taking place in Palestine, Sudan, and Congo, and the governments across the world are veering towards authoritarianism, undoing decades of progress.
With every tenth of a degree of global heating, the consequences for people and ecosystems multiply, as seen in the devastating wildfires, typhoons, cloudbursts, floods, and extreme heatwaves already sweeping across continents this year.
The Draw the Line mobilisations are a global call to action against inequality, destruction, and climate chaos and for rights, jobs, justice, and a safe planet. Across the world, people are demanding a feminist, fast, fair, funded, and forever phase-out of fossil fuels, investment in renewable energy,resilient food systems, real peoples led solutions funding for the future through climate finance from rich countries to the Global South, debt cancellation and taxing billionaires. At its heart, this movement is about justice, defending human rights, reclaiming democracy, restoring ecosystems, and building solidarity across peoples and nations.
Protests, artistic actions, vigils, and marches will take place in hundreds of cities around the world during this Global Week of Action in September, showing that people everywhere are united in demanding climate justice.
Draw the Line will be taking place alongside the Disrupt Complicity Weekend, September 18 to 21, called for by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) and stands in solidarity with their call to action.
As COP30 approaches in Brazil, activists stress that leaders must make the most of this narrowing window of opportunity: the choices made in the next few years will define the future of generations to come.
Events will take place in over 100 countries, with large mobilisations expected in Belem, Berlin, Dhaka, Istanbul, Jakarta, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Istanbul, Suva, London, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, Nairobi, New Delhi, New York, Paris, Tokyo, and Wellington, among other cities, territories, and villages.
Lidy Nacpil, Coordinator, Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), said: “We are drawing the line against deceptive tactics led by rich nations and big corporations to perpetuate fossil fuel dominance and delay the equitable just transition to a fossil free and healthy planet. We demand a complete coal phase out in Asia by 2035 and a rapid and just energy transition out of fossil fuels and to 100% renewable energy before 2050. We demand the full delivery of climate finance obligations of the Global North to the Global South for urgent climate action including Just Transition! This is a crucial part of their reparations for historical and continuing harms to our people.”
Tasneem Essop, Executive Director, Climate Action Network International: “We are living through immensely challenging times right now: increasing injustices, human rights violations, wars, conflict and genocide, devastating climate impacts, rising cost of living and more. A global movement of movements is rising up to respond to the moment with the launch of the ‘Draw the Line’ Global Week of Action.
“Youth and women, workers and communities, young and old, across our ravaged planet are drawing the line against those fighting to keep us locked in a world of pollution, exploitation, wars and injustice. We are saying enough is enough and call for a Just Transition that puts people at the centre and serves the needs and interests of the masses of people who are suffering. As laid out by the UN Secretary General today, the energy transition is here and it is unstoppable, but it has to be just, fair, inclusive and fast. Our united actions across the globe in September will be our call for a just future.”
Rachitaa Gupta, Global Coordinator, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ): “We are drawing the line against genocide, against fossil fuel expansion, and against false solutions that destroy our lands and extract from our communities. We refuse to let corporations profit off our lands, our resources, our food systems, and our bodies while our communities at the frontline continue to face the devastating impact of this crisis that we did not create. We demand an end to corporate capture and to the systems that turn war and extraction into profit.
“We call for a complete overhaul of the international financial architecture to dismantle debt traps, tax injustice, and neocolonial control. The Global North must pay up urgent climate finance in trillions, not as charity, but as reparations for centuries of plunder and pollution. This is not just a protest; it is a global movement for liberation. We demand a system change rooted in justice led by the peoples and communities. Our fight for climate justice is the fight for freedom, for dignity, and for life. And we are not backing down.”
Anne Jellema, Chief Executive, 350.org: “This mobilisation is about power, people power. The power to reject the lies of fossil fuel billionaires and remake our world for the many, not the few. We are drawing the line, because when governments fail to act, we rise. When polluters and profiteers try to divide us, we unite. We have the answers to this crisis, and we are calling on world leaders to listen, act, and follow the will of the people, not the whims of autocrats and billionaires. It’s our future, and it is for us to decide what it looks like.”
Tyrone Scott, Senior Movement Building & Activism Officer, War on Want: “In the UK, we’re joining movements worldwide and are drawing the line against inequality, climate breakdown, and the billionaires fuelling our global crises. On 20 September, thousands of us, backed by over 60 organisations, will march through the streets of London to demand justice.
“We’re part of a global movement rising together to say: enough is enough. From debt and poverty to fossil fuel tyranny, we are uniting across borders to resist more destruction and reclaim our future. This is a moment of reckoning. We are drawing the line for justice, for life, for the planet. Ordinary people didn’t cause this crisis; billionaires and corporations did. Now it’s time to make them pay to fix it.”
Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement for Palestinian rights, recipient of the 2017 Gandhi Peace Award: “In the current, most depraved, induced starvation phase of the US-Israeli livestreamed genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza ghetto, Palestinian civil society stands united in calling on people of conscience and grassroots movements for racial, economic, social, climate and gender justice worldwide to help us build a critical mass of people power to end state, corporate and institutional complicity with Israel’s regime of settler-colonial apartheid and genocide, particularly through effective BDS actions and pressure. We are not begging for charity but calling for true solidarity, and that begins with doing no harm to our liberation struggle, at the very least, as a profound moral and legal obligation.”
Hari Krishna Nibanupudi, Global Climate Change Adviser, HelpAge International: “Twenty-nine COPs and a million broken promises. Another summit, another letdown. It’s time to radically reform how global climate negotiations are conducted—and take power out of the hands of the polluters who profit from delay.”
Brice Böhmer, Climate & Environment Lead, Transparency International: “Too many past COPs have been undermined by undue influence and a lack of integrity. COP30 offers a vital opportunity to change course. Transparency International calls for clear rules of engagement, a strong conflict of interest policy, and an accountability framework to ensure that climate decisions serve the public good, not private profit. This is our chance to put ethics at the centre of climate action.”
Sara Washburn, Ottawa-Gatineau Climate March Organiser, Fridays For Future Ottawa, Canada: “I’m here because I’m a parent, and I worry about the world my kids are inheriting. We’re drawing the line because we all deserve a future built on care, not chaos. I’m taking action now because I want my children – and all our children – to have a safe, just, and livable planet.”