Activists sound a literal alarm at COP26

On Thursday afternoon 11 November at 2pm, Climate Call-Up and Extinction Rebellion set off the ‘Climate Siren’ on the bank of the River Clyde at Pacific Quay, opposite the COP26’s main centre where the high-level negotiations are concluding.

Other activists held a banner reading “Rebel for Life”, and several performed a die-in under the siren.

Inspired by wartime emergency sirens, the Climate Siren is a spectacular and powerful symbol, designed to remind political leaders that we face an existential emergency, which requires WW2-scale mobilisation and urgency.

Ben Carey, from Climate Call-Up, said: “This COP packed with fossil fuel lobbyists should be a wake-up call to citizens everywhere, especially those who have trusted politicians to deliver. The Climate Siren dramatises the dire peril we are in. We all need to radically step up pressure on governments. If we don’t, we’ll be hearing much louder and more regular sirens in our future, as the climate crisis hits humanity with full force.”

The Climate Siren is built from 8 loudspeakers rigged up in a 360 degree configuration, with a battery-powered amplifier, standing 8ft tall. It was first tested in London back in October rigged up to a billboard in Shepherd’s Bush. It is intended to provide a powerful auditory symbol of the climate emergency, enabling citizens and climate movements around the world to make themselves heard by political and corporate leaders behind their security cordons.

For the past week, people around the world have voted to sound the Climate Siren online, to have their alarm clearly expressed at COP26, which has been called the most exclusive COP ever, sidelining civil society and activists.

The Siren is a Climate Call-Up project, deployed in collaboration with Extinction Rebellion for COP26.

About Climate Call-Up

Climate Call-Up is a new protest movement calling for wartime-level mobilisation, which would involve urgent and mandatory action by governments to phase out fossil fuels, and an immediate marshalling of all society’s resources to halt climate change. It aims to mobilise a new wave of climate-concerned citizens, deeply worried about recent extreme weather events. People are invited to join in an evolving range of actions on www.climatecallup.org, which aim to be widely accessible yet effective.