In conversation with Garry Walsh: What does it actually take to make thousands of people show up for the planet?

World Environment Day 2026 focuses on climate change and climate action and UNEP’s global campaign calls on all of us to step in. 

Data are getting harder to ignore, from record temperatures, accelerating emissions, and political backsliding on the very commitments that gave so many of us hope. The question is no longer if change comes, but how we guide it and how fast it happens. The urgency is real, and most people feel it. The harder question is: what do we actually do about it? 

At STAND, we know this tension well. The young people we work with care deeply about the planet. But caring and acting are not the same thing, and the distance between them can feel enormous when the scale of the crisis makes anything one person can achieve seem to small.

That's why at STAND we're proud to be a member of Stop Climate Chaos, Ireland's leading coalition of organisations working together to demand bold climate action. Because one of the most important things we've learned is that collective action is both more powerful and more sustaining than doing it alone. 

In November last year, Stop Climate Chaos helped bring over 5,000 people onto the streets of Dublin for the climate march.  

We sat down with Garry Walsh from Oxfam, one of the key organisers behind it, to ask him what it actually takes to move people from caring about an issue to marching in the rain for it and what the fight looks like from here. 

Agnese: The march brought together over 60 groups, from trade unions to faith organisations to student bodies. How do you hold a coalition that diverse together?

Garry: For the climate march, we were lucky in that we already had a network called Stop Climate Chaos to lead the way. We're a network of over 20 organisations, including international organisations like Oxfam and Trócaire, environmental organisations like Friends of the Earth and An Taisce, and youth groups like Amlé. 

As Stop Climate Chaos has been in existence for almost two decades, strong relationships already existed, but we knew we had to think bigger and go wider to try and mobilise the entire climate movement in Ireland. So we started planning early — almost six months in advance. We created a broad concept for the march, 'End Fossil Power', and we approached grassroots groups, trade unions, political parties and many more, to try and build as big a platform as possible. 

This worked really well and eventually it snowballed as word spread. In the end we mobilised around 5,000 people onto the streets for the march, and it was down to having this broad group of 60+ organisations working together. 

Agnese: What was the moment you knew the event was going to work ,or the moment you thought it might not? 

Garry: Two days before the march, I went to post the flyer image for the march onto a local community WhatsApp group in my area called ‘Bloomin Crumlin’. To my surprise I saw that someone had just posted the flyer an hour before me. That’s when I knew that word was spreading organically and I became optimistic that we’d get a good turnout. 
 
That being said, when I woke up early on the morning of the march, a Saturday in November, to bucketing rain and storm-like conditions, I thought it was game over! Thankfully the rain eased off somewhat, and it just shows you the resilience and determination of people, and the depth of feeling in this country about climate breakdown, that thousands of people still came out to march in the rain on the streets of Dublin. It was so inspiring.  

Agnese: At STAND we've learned that people, particularly young people, deeply care about the planet. But many feel overwhelmed, hopeless, or doubtful that anything will change, and end up frozen. What's the biggest lesson you've learnt about moving people from caring about an issue to actually doing something about it? 

Garry: Thinking carefully about emotions is really key to mobilisation and sustaining campaigns. We can have all of our cleverly crafted analysis, policy arguments and political messages, but we need to spend as much time thinking about how we motivate, inspire and sustain activism from an emotional perspective to focus on heart as much as head. 
 
Negative emotions can invoke passion in activism – and the climate crisis, extreme weather events and fear for our future can all instil feelings of urgency, anger, and outrage that can spur people into action. Yet we need to be mindful about how those same emotions can also result in burnout, hopelessness and excessive worry for a future than seems out of our control. 
 

Community and connection are also incredibly important, and I think we need to focus on this more within our movements, particularly when so much activism is now online and very individualised. Connecting with people in person feels great, and collective activism has a social element that helps sustain movements in the long run. 
 

Agnese: Any tips for students or campus societies who want to mobilise their peers and make their voices heard? 

Garry: Think politically: focusing solely on individual actions like recycling and fast fashion can lead people to think that the climate crisis is their fault, or to feelings of guilt if they can't afford electric vehicles, solar panels, etc. Instead of blaming ourselves, we need to build collective power towards challenging governments and corporations who have the power to really transform our energy and transport systems. Take action — write to ministers, meet with your TDs, make your voices heard! 

Think creatively: grab people's attention in new, fun and creative ways. Think outside the box and don't be afraid to use humour. 

Think socially: create connection and community amongst activists, make people feel welcome and create a sense of belonging. Watch out for signs of 'activist purity' and divisions which can plague movement building. 

Agnese: What do you say to someone who asks "does marching actually change anything?" 

Garry: I’d say look at history, and that organising, marching, and making some noise has time and time again created real change. Look at the impact that climate activism has had globally already – yes, emissions are still rising and we’re far off track still for a liveable planet, but we’ve managed to reduce global emissions hugely in the last ten years. The transition away from fossil fuels has begun in earnest, and that would not have happened without all the attention that climate campaigners have brought on the issue. 
 
In Ireland, the climate school strikes in 2018 and 2019, inspired by Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for Future movement, resulted in the biggest climate marches we’ve ever seen in this country. That contributed to a strong vote for climate policies and the next government introduced the strongest climate law Ireland had ever seen. The same happened across the EU and ambitious legislation was brought in by Brussels.  
 
Yet in recent years the opposite has happened – the climate movement is now less strong, the attention has shifted, and we’re seeing backsliding on climate action both in Brussels and Dublin. So that shows you that marches can make a difference, but we also need to sustain the pressure on our governments! 

Agnese: What keeps you going professionally and personally when political progress feels so slow? 

Garry: Personally, I feel like we’ve no option but to keep going – the climate crisis is the defining issue of our times and we must keep the pressure on. This is challenging because despite the enormity of the climate crisis and the fact we’re so close to catastrophic tipping points, climate breakdown is much less immediate than something like a global pandemic, and it’s going to be something we are fighting to address for the rest of our lives. 

So that requires sustaining our energies over a very long time period - it’s a marathon not a sprint. We need to focus on the small wins, every milestone along the way counts. We also need to prepare for setbacks, long-term change is never linear, and also take time out in order to pace ourselves. Personally, I find switching off from the news cycle and connecting with nature is very restorative – I’m lucky to have a wildlife garden space where I can shelter from the chaos of the world.

The climate march doesn't exist in isolation. In Ireland right now, the climate crisis is colliding with some of the most pressing issues in people's daily lives — soaring energy bills, a chronic housing shortage, and crumbling water infrastructure. These aren't separate problems; they're deeply connected. The choices we make about energy, planning, and public investment today will shape the kind of country we live in for decades to come. That's why climate action isn't just an environmental issue, it's everyone's issue. We asked Garry to give us his read on where Ireland stands. 

Agnese: Ireland was the first country to divest government investment from fossil fuels in 2018, but is now falling well short of its emissions targets. What's your read on where Ireland stands right now? 

Garry: While Ireland has made some progress in recent years to reduce our emissions, we’re still far off-track to meet our carbon emissions targets by 2030. Ireland is well behind the EU average when it comes to emissions reductions, indeed Ireland has the second highest per capita emissions in the EU, second only to Malta. Simply put, we’re not doing enough to do our fair share of climate action, and at the same time, people in some of the lowest income countries are bearing the worst brunts of a crisis that they did not cause.  

Oxfam’s research shows that someone in Ireland’s richest 1% emits 14 times more carbon than someone in the bottom half of earners. Indeed, Ireland’s richest 10% emit almost as much as the bottom 50%, despite the bottom 50% of earners accounting fo roughly five times as many people.  
 
Ireland needs to take bold action to step up our climate ambition. As well as accelerating emissions reduction, we should be looking to make the richest polluters pay for the crisis and to fund the transition. This could involve introducing a wealth tax on Ireland’s growing super-rich, as well as Ireland supporting an EU windfall tax on fossil fuel companies in response to the current energy crisis. To support the global transition, we should be also increasing our climate finance to global south countries. 
 

Agnese: The LNG terminal debate has been one of the most contested climate issues in Ireland recently. How central is that fight to the broader movement? 

Garry: Ireland needs a long-term solution to our energy needs that phases out fossil fuels. Establishing any new fossil fuel infrastructure in Ireland is incompatible with our Paris Agreement commitments. Creating new liquefied natural gas terminals in Ireland will send us in the opposite direction, and will only exacerbate climate breakdown further. We need to treat the climate crisis with the urgency it deserves. 

Agnese: The just transition conversation is getting louder. The idea that the shift away from fossil fuels has to work for workers and communities, not just the environment. How well do you think Ireland is doing on that front? 

Garry: A core principle of climate justice is that the onus for rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and financing a just transition lies with the countries, companies and individuals who have emitted the most – and who have profited the most from the levels of economic development made possible by burning huge amounts of fossil fuels. 
 
In Ireland, the government’s approach to climate action is still characterised by a narrow focus on incrementally reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At Oxfam, we’d love to see Ireland making the richest polluters pay through taxation on extreme wealth, excess profits taxes on fossil fuel corporations, and support for the UN Convention on International Tax Cooperation. We could then ringfence the revenues generated by these taxes for financing a just transition that ensures equal access to essential services, including low-carbon public transport, adequate housing, clean energy, healthcare and childcare.

Agnese: Six months on from the march, what's changed, if anything? And what hasn't? 

Garry: In the last six months since the climate march, we’ve seen huge turmoil linked to fossil fuels both at home and abroad. The frantic fight for fossil fuels is bringing illegal actions and conflict from Venezuela to Iran, resulting in thousands dead and millions displaced and in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. The fuel crisis has also led to unprecedented fuel protests in Ireland as the cost of living crisis deepens.  
 
Yet there’s now a growing recognition in Ireland that the faster we move away from fossil fuels, the less dependent we are on the cost of fuel going up due to oil wars abroad. 

There’s a real opportunity now to shift any perception of climate action being an expensive 'nice to have' to something that will save all of us money in the long run. 

Also, in March we saw the historic first ever global summit in Colombia on phasing out of fossil fuels. Over 50 nations, including Ireland, gathered to form a ‘coalition of the willing’ of countries to discuss how we can transition away from fossil fuels. 

Ireland has demonstrated leadership by announcing that we will co-host the follow up second summit next year at the small island state of Tuvalu. This sends a strong signal that we are willing to play a leading role in developing a global roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels. Yet we must see action at home that matches the ambition of a global fossil fuel phase-out or that leadership will ring hollow.