Barclays AGM
3 May 2023: Singers from Bristol, London, Bath, Stroud, Oxford and Southampton interrupt Barclays Chairman Nigel Higgins and directors with a song inspired by the Spice Girls: ‘Stop Right Now… Stop funding fossil fuels and end this madness…Climate change is going too fast, fossil fuels belong in the past’. Lyrics appear on the autocue and are signed at the front as the song crescendos. Singers continue sounding out the message, audible to the AGM, when escorted to the entrance hall
Climate Choir Movement crescendos
1st May 2023: On May Day the recently-formed Bath Climate Choir sings Let Us Stand: ‘…as we face the coming storm, for we love this land, let’s work for a better dawn’ on a site where people have gathered to sing for around 1300 years, next to Bath Abbey. The Bath Choir is one of several that have formed following Bristol’s lead – we now have choirs in London, Stroud, Oxford, Southampton. Together we are strong!
The Big One, London
21 April 2023: The Climate Choir Movement grows as choirs from Bristol, Bath and London join with newly-formed choirs from Southampton, Swansea and Oxford to sing rousing renditions of Let Us Stand and Voice of Change at The Big One in London. Four days of activism by key groups seeking to stop new fossil fuel projects and the setting up of citizen-led democratic assemblies to grow voices for change.
UK Divest Day in the City of London
24 March 2023: UK Divest Day of Action: the Bristol, London and Bath Climate Choirs sing out in the City of London to change minds and hearts on the urgent need to divest from fossil fuels and move more quickly to renewables. Choices about where to put pension investments have a massive influence on carbon emissions – or on their reduction. Powerful financial institutions such as Black Rock and Vanguard are urged to wake up and take a lead. Singers call for CEOs Larry Fink and Tim Buckley to listen up
Our first action
4 February 2023: The choir accompanies the Red Rebels at the No Airport Expansion rally. The seeds for the choir were sown back in November when the court sat to decide on challenges to expansion of Bristol airport. The High Court judge’s decision to uphold planning permission despite overwhelming opposition will be appealed by Bristol Airport Action Network and its many supporters.
The launch of the choir
4 January 2023: It all starts! ‘Let Us Stand’ and ‘We Got All the Love’ are our first songs. We’ll use song for peaceful protest to get the message across: all of us have to act now. Harmonious sounds and energy fill the room. We’re ready to resonate and encourage other climate choirs around the country and beyond.
HSBC AGM London
29 April 2022: Prelude to the formation of the Bristol Climate Choir: a singing flash mob interrupts HSBC Chairman Mark Tucker’s AGM speech with Money, Money, Money, a variation on the song by Abba, demanding that investment in new fossil fuel projects is immediately stopped.