A one-stop source for following global trends in climate policy protests since 2022.
Carnegie’s Climate Protest Tracker identifies episodes of mass activism relating to climate policy around the world since 2022. Building on Carnegie’s existing protest research, the Climate Protest Tracker aggregates key climate-related protests around the world and presents their objectives, participants, and outcomes. Designed for researchers, decisionmakers, and journalists, this resource helps illustrate how demands around climate policy are spurring civic action.
The country/countries in which the protest took place.
Protest NameProtests’ commonly used name, if any (for example, the Global Climate Strike), or an abbreviated description of the protests.
Start DateThe month in which the protest took place, or for protests of a long duration, the month in which the protest began.
Peak SizeAn estimate, based on media reports, of the peak protest attendance. Peak crowd size is estimated by considering the total number of individuals gathered for a single event, which could entail multiple locations in the same city or even multiple countries for a global rally.
Key Participants and Platformdentifies groups that played a notable role in the protest.
Anti-Climate ActionThe tracker distinguishes between protests that seek to accelerate climate action and those that seek to inhibit it—with the option to filter for “anti-climate action.”
Protests with a clear climate policy goal are included if they consist of at least a hundred individuals.
Awareness and ActionProtests without a clear policy target beyond increasing awareness around climate action are only included if significant crowd sizes are achieved. For the purposes of this tracker, “significant crowd sizes” are 10,000 individuals for free countries (according to the Freedom House classification) and 1,000 for protests in countries that are deemed to be partly free or not free.
Fossil Fuel and EmissionsProtests aimed at stopping or reducing fossil fuel extraction, transportation, and use, or reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Mining and Mineral ResourcesProtests targeting the extraction or regulation of minerals that are crucial to the clean energy transition.
AgricultureProtests addressing agricultural practices that contribute to climate change or those impacted by climate-related policies (e.g. emissions curbs).
AdaptationProtests focused on responses to the impacts of climate change, including infrastructure projects, disaster relief, or climate resilience planning.
This tracker focuses on mass action relating to climate, and thus does not include many of the smaller-scale mobilizations that may attract significant media attention. While efforts have been made to include a range of sources, it may not include protests that are not widely discussed in English-language media.
Protest SizeReliable and accurate information on the number of protesters is not always available. In many cases, the only sources of information on a protest’s size are local authorities, who often underestimate the size of protests, or protest organizers, who may overestimate the size of protests. The estimate in this field reflects a best estimate of peak protest attendance. Countries that have closed civil societies with significant political repression or without protest culture may struggle to mobilize a hundred individuals for protests. While some exceptions to that size requirement were made for countries with closed civil societies, they still remain underrepresented in this tracker.
The criteria for inclusion in this tracker is that a protest must be an episode of mass action around climate policy that registers in national or international socio-political life. For the purposes of this tracker, climate activism is understood as a confrontational activity that aims to prevent perceived bad or unjust outcomes caused by anthropogenic global warming. We understand climate activism to be distinct from environmental activism, and hence, protests solely concerned with protecting the natural environment may not be included in this database.
The tracker records civic activism with a direct relation to climate policy, and may exclude protests that relate to climate change but are not framed in terms of climate policy. However, as the climate crisis intensifies, we anticipate seeing a rise in protests driven by indirect effects of climate change—such as food insecurity or displacement—which may not explicitly reference climate policy, but are nevertheless influenced by or related to upstream climate policy.
The data in this tracker draws from major English-language, French-language, and Mandarin-Chinese language international media outlets. Data is also drawn from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) (www.acleddata.com), with data filtered to reflect relevant climate protests.
The tracker data was last updated on: February 28, 2025
| Country | Protest Name | Start Date | Peak Size | Protest Target | Objectives |
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