In 2014, very few people in T&T were talking about climate, and there was a stigma around doing so, given our nation’s strong oil and gas background. IAMovement helped to break walls down and drive the conversation, through the first People’s Climate March around the Queen’s Park Savannah.

The Trinidad People’s Climate March was held on Sunday 21st September 2014 at Wildflower Park and the Queen’s Park Savannah. The local event here in T&T was 1 of 2,646 solidarity events taking place in 162 countries around the world that weekend. The Trinidad event was organized by IAMovement in just 2 weeks and was a success with over 150 people coming out and taking part in the largest global climate march in history at that time.

The main event organized by 350.org was held in New York and saw over 400,000 participants including actor Leonardo Di Caprio getting involved. Many world leaders also attended and spoke about their intentions towards dealing with climate change including Barack Obama, a significant step for the climate movement at the time.

The Global People’s Climate March was an important milestone event where people all over the world stood unified in support of bringing balance to our changing climate and protecting our earth for future generations and sending this message to world leaders. The 2014 People’s Climate March paved the way for the important 2015 Climate March activities which took place around the world during the Climate Change Conference in Paris where the Paris Climate Agreement was developed.

Global Voices features of the 2014 POS People’s Climate March can be found here (part 1) and here (part 2).