"System change, not climate change"

“System change, not climate change” is a protest saying that has been printed on many images. “System change, not climate change” was printed in the Taranaki Daily News (New Plymouth, New Zealand) on March 7, 2008.

The saying was popularized for the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference at Copenhagen on December 7-18, 2009. “démonstration in Copenhagen, 12/12 during #COP15 will say ‘System Change - Not Climate Change’ http://bit.ly/13pPjq” was posted on Twitter by benkamorvan on October 22, 2009. “System Change, Not Climate Change: let’s all converge on Copenhagen for cop15 to make bankers pay for climate reparations” was posted on Twitter by ClimateJusticeAction on October 30, 2009.

Wikipedia: 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference
The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit, was held at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7 and 18 December. The conference included the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 5th Meeting of the Parties (MOP 5) to the Kyoto Protocol. According to the Bali Road Map, a framework for climate change mitigation beyond 2012 was to be agreed there.

7 March 2008, Taranaki Daily News (New Plymouth, New Zealand), “Democracy! Liberty! Equality!; But not for the rich, OK someone has to pay to better (our) society” by Chris Trotter, pg. 9:
To set the ball rolling, they’re invited to debate the following five policy ideas:

(1) Free public transport throughout NZ. Massive investment in rail and free buses—an emergency “system change, not climate change” programme.

Twitter
benkamorvan
@benkamorvan
démonstration in Copenhagen, 12/12 during #COP15 will say “System Change - Not Climate Change” http://bit.ly/13pPjq
10:43 AM - 22 Oct 2009

Twitter
ClimateJusticeAction
@actforclimate
System Change, Not Climate Change: let’s all converge on Copenhagen for cop15 to make bankers pay for climate reparations
3:18 AM - 30 Oct 2009

Twitter
Climate Activism
@ClimateActivism
System Change, Not Climate Change: let’s all converge on Copenhagen for cop15 to make bankers pay for climate reparations RT @actforclimate
5:45 PM - 30 Oct 2009

30 November 2009, The Independent (London, UK), “Copenhagen: the ‘people’s summit’” by Ben Ferguson and Michael McCarthy, pg. 12:
“System Change, Not Climate Change” is the slogan for the less formal actions being organised by Climate Justice Action (CJA), the umbrella group for an international network that includes Climate Camp, Focus on the Global South, and the Indian Social Action Forum.

6 December 2009, Sunday Times (London, UK), “We’ve got them climate blues: Environment About 30,000 chilly protesters gathered in London for some warming hellfire sermons, reports Richard Woods,” pg. 4:
Afterwards, hundreds of hardy types set up camp in Trafalgar Square, declaring “we need system change, not climate change”.

16 December 2009, The Capital Times (Madison, WI), “Voice of the People: Global north should back climate justice,” pg. 34, cols. 1-2:
Dear Editor: Close to 100,000 people participated in the “System Change Not Climate Change” rally Saturday in Copenhagen at the U.N. Climate Change Conference. I was among them.
(...)
John E. Peck, Madison, executive director of Family Farm Defenders and U.N.-accredited observer to the climate conference

Google Books
Global Warming:
The Causes and Consequences
By Ishita Haldar
New Delhi, India: Readworthy Press Coirporation
2010
Pg. 81:
A People’s Declaration was formulated during the People’s Climate Summit calling for “System change—not climate change” and handed over to the 15th Conference of the Parties on December 18 (2009—ed.).

OCLC WorldCat record
System Change not Climate Change: Has a New Social Formation Emerged at the Kyoto II Climate Change Talks in Copenhagen?
Author: Terisa E Turner
Edition/Format: Article Article : English
Publication: Capitalism Nature Socialism, v21 n1 (201003): 8-12

OCLC WorldCat record
System Change Not Climate Change : Manifesto for a New Economy.
Author: James Gustave Speth; Dartmouth College. Media Production Group.; Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences.
Publisher: 2013.
Edition/Format: DVD video : English

OCLC WorldCat record
Political ecology : system change not climate change
Author: Dimitrios I Roussopoulos
Publisher: Montréal, Québec : Black Rose Books, 2019.
Edition/Format: Print book : English : 4th edition, revised
Summary:
“In this new and greatly expanded edition of his 1991 classic Political Ecology, Dimitri Roussopoulos delves into the history of environmentalism to explain the failure of the State’s management of the ecological crisis. He explores civil society’s various past responses and the prospects for channeling environmentalist aspirations into political alternatives, emphasizing the ideas of social ecology and the central role of democratic neighborhoods and cities in developing alternatives. Ecologists, Roussopoulos argues, aim for more than simply protecting the environment- they call for new communities, new lifestyles, and a new way of doing politics.”

The Conversation
Climate strikes: Greta Thunberg calls for ‘system change not climate change’ – here’s what that could look like
March 15, 2019 7.25am EDT
Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist, is calling for system change. At a press conference in Brussels, she told the European Commission that in order to fight climate change we need to change our political and economic systems – a message that has been repeated on signs and in chants in the student climate strikes around the world.

The school climate strikes, which she started alone in August 2018, have become a social movement with 1,659 strikes planned for March 15 in 105 countries.

But what is system change? How do entire systems change?

Twitter
George Arthur
@GeorgeArthur5
Tonight’s Barnsley Socialist Worker meeting in Barnsley Civic at 6.30pm: author and activist Martin Empson speaking on “System Change not Climate Change” along with a student striker from Sheffield and videos of climate change demos. Join the debate about how we save our world.
9:20 AM - 28 Mar 2019