Achievements

What we have achieved

We are a team entirely of under 25-year-olds from across Scotland. Since SYCS was founded, we’ve been working hard to educate, raise awareness and push for action to tackle the climate crisis. Here are some examples of the work we’ve done…

STRIKE

3,000 people marched in Edinburgh for our first strike on March 15th 2019
20,000 people marched in Edinburgh and 15,000 in Glasgow for the global climate strike on September 20th 2019
40,000 people marched across Scotland in total on Sep 20th
150 people marched for the first strike in Dumfries on November 29th 2019
11 branches of our organisation were set up to organise strikes in their area
We held strikes on 14th of February and 15th of March 2020
We held strikes across Scotland on the 12th April 2019
We climate striked digitally on the 9th of April to stay safe during the pandemic

EVENTS

We attended the Scottish Trade Union Congress in 2019 to speak about the climate emergency
An activist from SYCS was invited to speak at the Scottish Green Party conference about why she climate strikes
Activists met with members of the Scottish TUC to discuss strategies for creating change
A member of SYCS travelled to London to meet Greta Thunberg and politicians Jeremy Corbyn, Caroline Lucas and Ian Blackford
We spoke at the Bird Fair event along with Chris Packham to talk about the climate emergency
SYCS activists spoke at the WWF Scotland stall at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
We met with members of Unite The Union in Glasgow
Some of our members took place in the International Rebellion with Extinction Rebellion Scotland

LAWS AND CHANGES

First minister Nicola Sturgeon Declared a climate emergency soon after our first climate strike on the 15th March
Scotland set some of the most ambitious climate targets the week following our climate strike on Sept 20th. With a net zero target by 2045 and 75% reduction by 2030, this is nowhere near enough but it is a welcomed step in the right direction
Climate strikers from SYCS met with the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in March 2019 to discuss action the Scottish Government could take to tackle the climate crisis
Some of our activists met with members of the IPCC and Scottish Parliament Environment Committee to discuss the need for climate action from the Scottish Government
Representatives from across Scotland met with MSPs in the Scottish Parliament to discuss the Scottish People’s Climate Action Declaration
In the lead up to the 2019 UK General Election we organised hustings to put pressure on candidates to have more green policies

INTERNATIONAL

One of our activists attended the COP25 in Madrid, that was thanks to your generous donations, we gained valuable experience and connections that will be critical when COP26 comes to Glasgow in 2021
8 of our activists attended the Fridays for Future Summer Meeting in Lausanne Europe (SMILE) in the summer of 2019, they made valuable cross border connections that strengthens our movement and shares experience
One of our activists took part in the international climate strike in Brussels to push for climate action from the European Parliament

CAMPAIGNS

We participated in a protest in support of the Ready For Renewable Jobs campaign that aims to create new, green jobs in Fife
We launched our own branch of the Teach The Future campaign aiming to introduce more climate education in our schools
We participated in the Green Recovery campaign with Friends Of The Earth Scotland to pus for a green economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic
We launched our Save Our Seas Saturdays to push for more action to tackle plastic pollution and threats to the oceans during Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters