Climate Activists Rally in Brussels to Demand Urgent Action

Climate activists gathered in Brussels on Sunday to declare a climate emergency, warning that “if the climate struggle is dead, all the others will be too.” The mobilization, organized under the banner “Rise for Convergence! Stand Up for Our Social and Environmental Rights!,” brought together artists, teachers, students, healthcare workers, farmers, and environmental activists in what organizers described as the first major demonstration of the new political season.

A Deadly Summer Behind the Protest

The demonstration comes in the wake of Belgium’s hottest summer ever recorded, with an average temperature of 20.3°C — the first time the seasonal average has exceeded 20°C since records began in 1833. According to RTBF, nearly 3,000 excess deaths were recorded across three official heatwaves that struck between June 18 and August 16, with the first wave being the deadliest at 2,035 excess deaths.

La Libre Belgique reported that the first heatwave, from June 18 to July 3, saw a 48.8% excess mortality rate — the highest ever recorded during a heatwave in Belgium since records began in 2000. Major wildfires also burned over 3,000 hectares in the Hautes Fagnes nature reserve during the summer.

Convergence of Struggles

At least 1,000 participants were expected at Place de l’Albertine near Brussels Central Station, according to The Brussels Times. The event deliberately sought to unite diverse social movements around the central issue of climate change.

“Our goal is to show that if we no longer have a habitable planet, everything else loses its meaning, whether it’s education, culture, or social causes,” said Getch, a Belgian singer-songwriter and one of the event’s initiators.

Kim Le Quang, co-founder of the citizen collective Rise for Climate Belgium, said organizers wanted to increase pressure on both the Belgian government and the EU. “Faced with the disastrous handling of this summer’s heatwaves and widespread budget cuts, we want to put pressure on the government and on Europe,” he said.

Expert Criticism of Government Response

Public discontent with authorities’ handling of the crisis is widespread. A Cluster17 poll for RTL Info found that 57% of Belgians believe authorities mishandled the heatwave crisis.

Climatologist Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, former vice-president of the IPCC, told RTL Info that “we should have taken the necessary adaptation measures,” comparing the situation to the deadly 2003 heatwave that killed approximately 1,200 people in Belgium. Meteorologist Pascal Mormal of the Royal Meteorological Institute echoed this criticism, stating that “apparently, the authorities have not sufficiently taken the measure of the danger.”

Organizers’ Demands

The Press Club Brussels Europe press release details organizers’ accusations that a “climate genocide” is underway, pointing to at least 2,000 excess deaths in Belgium during the June heatwave and approximately 35,000 across Europe. They accuse authorities of “denial, inaction and pauses in environmental regulation,” and criticize the EU for dismantling the European Green Deal piece by piece while planning an 800 billion EUR military buildup by 2030.

“We are the last generation able to stop this continuous rise in temperatures and an uninhabitable Earth that will cause millions, even billions of deaths,” organizers stated. “This is not inevitable, it’s a political choice.”

The event program featured speeches from scientists, educators, healthcare workers, and agricultural representatives, along with artistic performances and a citizens’ assembly on the convergence of struggles. Speakers included Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, representatives from Via Campesina Europe on agricultural drought impacts, and Fatima Zibouh on uniting struggles in the face of climate change.

What’s Next

Organizers announced plans for a national Climate March on October 11, organized by the Climate Coalition, ahead of COP30 in Brazil. The event also serves as a precursor to what activists describe as a broader campaign to pressure Belgian and European authorities to accelerate climate action.

As the Climate Coalition notes, the mobilization marks the beginning of a new season of protest aimed at forcing political leaders to confront what organizers describe as an existential crisis. With nearly 3,000 lives lost to heatwaves in a single summer, the urgency of their message resonates far beyond the streets of Brussels.