Fight for the future: our best climate protest photos

Fight for the future: our best climate protest photos
Climate takeover — As part of our climate takeover to mark COP26, we're dipping into the archives and sharing some of our best photos capturing climate activism over the past few years.

The fight against climate change is a decades old struggle. For years and years, environmentalists have taken action to try to protect our natural world, encourage leaders and multinational corporations to leave fossil fuels in the ground and, more recently, prevent irreversible and devastating climate change.

The last few years have seen an explosion of those movements. The 2018 IPCC report which stated we had just 12 years to avert catastrophe became a huge calling card for many. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets behind the banners of mass movements like Extinction Rebellion and Fridays for Future.

We’ve seen co-ordinated marches across the globe, the targeting of events like Fashion Week as well as mass civil disobedience campaigns which have led to thousands arrested. Many, spurred on by the terror of what unabashed fossil-fuel use means for them and their families, have taken action for the first time on the climate over the last few years, calling on leaders here and across the globe to act.

Through all of it, we’ve been there, reporting from the ground, capturing the action and the struggle. As the world’s eyes are on Glasgow for this month’s COP26 summit and as activists gear up for a huge weekend of action in the city and across the world, we bring you some of our favourite photos of climate protests that we’ve published over the past few years.

XR protest 2018. Photo by Theo McInnes

Extinction Rebellion blockade the bridges of London, November 2018. Photo by Eva Clifford

Global Climate Strike in London. Photo by Theo McInnes

XR’s Red Rebel Brigade, October 2019. Photo by Peter Brooks

Extinction Rebellion blockade the bridges of London, November 2018. Photo by Eva Clifford

Extinction Rebellion blockade the bridges of London, November 2018. Photo by Eva Clifford

Climate protestors block roads to ‘disrupt’ Fashion Week, February 2019. Photo by Theo McInnes

XR block a London junction, August 2021. Photo by Aiyush Pachnanda

Global Climate Strike, London. Photo by Theo McInnes

XR block a London junction, August 2021. Photo by Aiyush Pachnanda

XR protest, 2018. Photo by Theo McInnes

XR block a London junction, August 2021. Photo by Aiyush Pachnanda

Climate protestors block roads to ‘disrupt’ Fashion Week, February 2019. Photo by Theo McInnes

XR block a London junction, August 2021. Photo by Aiyush Pachnanda

XR protest, 2018. Photo by Theo McInnes

COP26 takes place between 31 October – 12 November 2021. Keep an eye on Huck’s live coverage of COP on our Twitter and Instagram, and read more about our climate takeover here

Latest on Huck

The party starters fighting to revive Stonehenge’s Solstice Free Festival
Huck Presents

The party starters fighting to revive Stonehenge’s Solstice Free Festival

Free the Stones! delves into the vibrant community that reignites Stonehenge’s Solstice Free Festival, a celebration suppressed for nearly four decades. 

Written by: Laura Witucka

Hypnotic Scenes of 90s London Nightlife
Photography

Hypnotic Scenes of 90s London Nightlife

Legendary photographer Eddie Otchere looks back at this epic chapter of the capital’s story in new photobook ‘Metalheadz, Blue Note London 1994–1996’

Written by: Miss Rosen

The White Pube: “Artists are skint, knackered and sharing the same 20 quid”
Culture

The White Pube: “Artists are skint, knackered and sharing the same 20 quid”

We caught up with the two art rebels to chat about their journey, playing the game that they hate, and why anarchism might be the solution to all of art’s (and the wider world’s) problems.

Written by: Isaac Muk

The Chinese youth movement ditching big cities for the coast
Photography

The Chinese youth movement ditching big cities for the coast

In ’Fissure of a Sweetdream’ photographer Jialin Yan documents the growing number of Chinese young people turning their backs on careerist grind in favour of a slower pace of life on Hainan Island.

Written by: Isaac Muk

The LGBT Travellers fundraising for survival
Activism

The LGBT Travellers fundraising for survival

This Christmas, Traveller Pride are raising money to continue supporting LGBT Travellers (used inclusively) across the country through the festive season and on into next year, here’s how you can support them.

Written by: Percy Henderson

The fight to save Bristol’s radical heart
Activism

The fight to save Bristol’s radical heart

As the city’s Turbo Island comes under threat activists and community members are rallying round to try and stop the tide of gentrification.

Written by: Ruby Conway

Sign up to our newsletter

Issue 81: The more than a game issue

Buy it now