March for the Climate – 31 March 2019
https://www.facebook.com/events/976770136045650/
The citizen collective Rise for Climate Belgium is organising its 5th national and European mobilisation on Sunday 31 March. The assembly is scheduled for 1pm at the North Station, the start of the march at 2pm, and the arrival around 3.30pm on the esplanade of the Cinquantenaire park.
The activities that will welcome the marchers in the park will include testimonials, ideas and concrete solutions for a fair and sustainable ecological transition. Live music will be performed by the artists Charlotte and Bai Kamara. A “Solutions Village” will feature information stands from environmental NGOs and associations.
The march is supported by the Coalition Climat – Klimaatcoalitie, CNCD-11.11.11.11, Youth, Students, and Teachers for Climate, Génération Climat, Grands-parents pour le climat, and the Déclaration d’un état d’urgence environnemental (DEUE). As Mathilde of Students for Climate points out, « all the organisations working for the climate support each other in their actions, whatever the modes of action employed by each of them, because they pursue the same goal, maintaining the pressure so that the political class will finally respond to the climate emergency. »
Pascoe Sabido, researcher and campaign manager at the Corporate Europe Observatory, warns that « our political system is under the influence of the fossil energy lobby and a hundred multinationals which are responsible for more than 70% of greenhouse gas emissions. »
The many actions that have been carried out and the massive citizen mobilization of recent months, including this week’s Occupy For Climate, have achieved progress toward the revision of Article 7bis of the Constitution, which will be voted by the Belgian parliament on Thursday 28 March. Whatever the outcome of the vote, the march of the 31st will send a strong message to the government, as well as to the 28 EU Member States, to put the climate issue on the negotiating table of the European Council as a priority.