20,000 protestors marched and braved the cold in Brussels on Sunday after the Belgian climate activist group Climate Coalition called on politicians and leaders to take action urgently to limit harm from climate change.  While this year’s protest was smaller than last year’s, it was held decidedly during the United Nations’ COP 28 climate summit in Dubai to send a message to world leaders to keep their “climate commitments.”  The theme that Climate Coalition put out for the march was, “Every tenth of a degree counts.”

This march took place as COP 28 continues in the United Arab Emirates to address limiting global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius.  During the conference, many countries have pledged to fund its loss and damage fund to help low and middle-income countries address climate change.  The UAE pledged $100 million towards the fund while Germany also committed $100 million. The UK committed £40 million for the fund and £20 million for other arrangements. Japan contributed $10 million, and the US committed $17.5 million.

Despite these steps, there is a need for “rapid transformation” in climate change, according to the UN Environment Programme’s 2022 Emissions Gap Report.  The report details “inadequate” progress toward the required emission reduction targets for the Paris Agreement’s temperature goals.

Members of the G20 are also behind on implementing their Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement, steps taken post-2020 to mitigate the effects of climate change.