Our Switch Your Bank Campaign launches in Bristol
17 January 2026: Members of the Bristol Climate Choir sang a rousing rendition of “We’re Gonna Switch Our Bank” outside Barclays in Broadmead. The performance aims to encourage the public to switch to banks with more ethical and environmentally friendly policies. The action, a collaboration with the youth-led banking campaign SWITCHED, comes in response to growing concerns about the role of financial institutions in supporting industries that contribute to climate change. SWITCHED’s mission is to empower people to make a difference by moving their money away from banks with harmful environmental practices to those supporting climate-positive investments. The song performed is a catchy and upbeat anthem inspired by the Netflix hit film KPop Demon Hunters.
No Tidings of Comfort and Joy: Calling Out Norway’s Fossil Fuel Hypocrisy
4 December 2025: The Norwegian state owns 67% of Equinor, the multinational that continues to push oil and gas production. Their energy minister Terje Aasland has shamed Ed Miliband in the UK press for not being pro-oil enough. So to signal discontent at this bleak state of affairs Three Kings, accompanied by singers, travelled far to offer three ‘Rosebank gifts’ at the door of the Norwegian Embassy. The gifts consisted of millions of tons of carbon dioxide, a hurricane, and a devastated ocean. Not carols but protest songs rang out at the embassy door which opened onto astonished embassy staff. Afterwards the Climate Choir went to Trafalgar Square for the lighting of the Norwegian spruce tree. Songs rang out from the National Gallery steps: O Christmas Tree and Stop Rosebank. Despite most Norwegian citizens being green-minded their government is not. It is actively sabotaging the world’s efforts to reach net zero. Christmas is a time of giving and it’s time the Norwegian state started giving instead of taking from the oceans and the air.
Moving Music in Manchester Museum
22 November 2025: We were thrilled to collaborate with Manchester’s Ryebank singers at EarthSonic Live, an event bringing a fabulous range of talks and music sharing stories of nature, climate, and biodiversity. Climate Movement singers from Sheffield, Nottingham, Wyre Forest, Oxford, Bristol and London popped up across the museum, singing to the more-than-human diversity of our world, at times under the skeleton of a sperm whale! A workshop led by Kai Honey, our musical director, took themes of singing as emotional resilience, meaning-making and community building. Participants had a great time learning the Ryebank Song, which they will no doubt be singing all the way home after a packed, enlivening and moving day. (Lyrics)
People Power at King’s Cross and St Pancras stations
17 September 2025: Flash mob sings No drilling in the North Sea! The Climate Choir is determined to get the message across that fossil fuel fields for profiteering corporations must NOT be allowed. Climate Choir singers mingled with passengers at London railway stations, then burst into song with Stop Rosebank!, joining with campaigners from Uplift and Stop the Rosebank Oilfield to amplify the call. The piano in the departure hall was played by composer Kai Honey. The protest highlights the actions of the UK government in going along with actions of Norwegian company Equinor, which were ruled unlawful. The company has reapplied for drilling permission. The Climate Choir’s last major action on this urgent issue was inside the Houses of Parliament last year and a prior event took place on 6 September by Bristol’s harbourside. Instead of a destructive trajectory that depletes the earth for the short-term gain of the few and huge suffering for the many, options for green energy MUST be the focus. We care about our planet. [Lyrics]
Riversong: Save the Wye
24 May 2025: Over a hundred climate choir singers massed by the River Wye to join with others protesting the appalling pollution of its waters in recent years by farms expelling harmful waste. The River Goddess towered majestically over the bankside with Lady Wye as songs rang out. Welsh Water was named in one song as a supposed guardian of water quality and Nandos and Cargill as examples of companies profiting from mass production chicken farming practices that damage rivers. In a moving river ceremony children and adults brought jars of water from their local rivers and lakes all around Britain to be blessed and to pledge the crucial importance of protecting the cleanliness of our waterways. The Climate Choirs’ songs included the angry Why Wye Wye and the lyrical Flow Wandering River. Singers gave a heartfelt farewell to Jo Flanagan whose huge inspiration and hard work has grown the movement from seeds three years ago to the vibrant body it is now. Jo is stepping down to take a well-earned rest. She hands over to an energetic well established core team.
Rewild Church Land: singing in St Paul’s Cathedral
1st March 2025: Birds fluttered beneath the great dome as singers from around the country lifted their voices to the skies. Church of England Rewild Your Land* echoed statements from the church authorities saying we must steward the beautiful world and protect its gifts. The organisation Wild Card is calling for the Church Commissioners to rewild 30% of the 105 thousand acres they own by 2030 https://wildcard.land/campaigns/rewild-the-church Does Not Nature Cry Out** is a heartfelt plea to spiritual leaders to step up to the lectern and make their voices heard and act now for life in all its magnificent diversity. Our action proclaimed what has been well understood for centuries and well before Christopher Wren laid the first stone: “Let the water teem with an abundance of living creatures, and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky”. We have no time to lose – eternity is in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower.
* by Ruth Routledge ** by Sally Davies
NO to BP Funding British Museum
30 November 2024: A banner unfurls from high above the Great Court. It reads DROP BP. Fluttering briefly between two ionic columns, it settles. Heads turn to look up. Then a flashmob appears from nowhere. To the tune of Space Odyssey singers launch into TIME TO DROP BP. The flagship British Museum has chosen to accept huge amounts of funding from BP for its redevelopment programme. BP is a global oil company that continues to prioritise massive investment in fossil fuels, in fact has doubled down on this type of investment in recent years. The museum purports to be sustainable. It is not sustainable to collaborate and promote one of the fossil fuel giants who are wrecking biodiversity and lives across the planet. What is a museum if not a place to learn, discover, and treat different cultures with respect? Oil magnates profiting out of climate emergency with no thought for populations devastated by it are NOT SUSTAINABLE.
Rise in Song fundraising concert
11 October 2024: Rise in Song fundraising concert in Bristol drew an audience of over two hundred at All Saints Clifton compered by activist musician Kimwei and choir member Kay. Singers from Bristol, London, Exeter, Portsmouth, Stroud and other parts of the UK assembled to sing songs from actions including powerful favourites Let Us Stand, Eradicate Ecocide and The Climate’s Changing. A vocal ensemble sang four songs from the balcony including Love is Stronger than Fear and This Ancient Land, and the jazz fusion band Plant with Legs entertained with multiple instruments played with panache. The interval included homemade cakes and a silent auction for donated prizes which supplemented ticket income and donations to raise funds, half of which go to the movement’s choir in Zimbabwe and to a bore hole in the drought-stricken country. Singer Ali Orbaum took the solo of People Have the Power with John Woodhouse on guitar, backed by the choir and audience – a truly rousing finale to a heartfelt motivating evening. Thanks to all who generously donated – and who continue to donate via the button on this website.
Restore Nature Now
22 June 2024: The rousing chorus People Have the Power by Patti Smith rang out on Whitehall as sixty thousand marched to demand, in the days before a general election, that the government ATTENDS NOW to the wildlife crisis. Inspiring musician and bard Kimwei led the Climate Choir singing with huge crowds I’m Loving Nature Instead, an adaptation of a well-known Robbie Williams song. In remarkable synchronicity, just after naturalist Chris Packham, hosting the day, had said that a peregrine falcon is occasionally seen above the Houses of Parliament, three peregrines appeared directly above! A line-up of powerful speakers included Nemonte Nenquimo, Indigenous activist from the Amazonian region of Ecuador, Asad Rehman from War on Want, and inspiring 10-year-old Aneeshwar Kunchala who flagged up the risk of extinction for many species, along with organisations including the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts, and direct action campaigners.
Great Big Green Week
9 June 2024: Great Big Green Week is a UK-wide celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature. Here’s Sheffield Climate Choir singing ‘Earth’s Child’ by Emily Roblyn to celebrate Sheffield’s rivers in an event organised with the South Yorkshire Climate Alliance. At Castlegate, looking out over the river, the Sheffield Climate Choir was joined by singers who had been raising their voices as part of the National Street Choirs Festival which filled the streets of Sheffield with music throughout the weekend.