2025 was a year of turmoil and continuing crisis as we witnessed more extreme weather events, fascism gaining ground, and the continuing genocide in Gaza. In this moment, the Stay Grounded network decided to come together, take stock, and create strategies to resist climate collapse by strengthening our movement. Despite the current political climate, across the twelve months our network secured some wins! Here’s a non-exhaustive list of what the Stay Grounded network got up to in 2025. 

Connecting Across Three Continents

Over the course of four days in July, more than 230 people came together across three continents and online to build collective strategies for resisting climate collapse.  We gathered in Barcelona, Mexico City, and Bangalore for the Beyond Aviation, Tourism, and Capitalism conference. The programme included workshops, panel discussions and crafts exploring everything from the skills needed to build community during crisis through to collaging! The conference sought to create connections between the movement against aviation and groups campaigning against touristification. Anti-oppression work was at its core with spaces, panels, and structures created to ensure this was a central focus. Beyond this, there were shared moments of joy, music, food, and entertainment with an open mic night, a party, hearty buffets, and chance to connect outside of the official programme.

 

More and More Momentum

Many of the initiatives started by Stay Grounded members over the past few years gathered even more momentum in 2025. In September, groups marked the second International Day for the Ban on Night Flights at Airports. Over 220 groups signed the declaration demanding an immediate end to night flights at airports. Night flights have especially heavy health consequences and place an unreasonable burden on those living near airports. That’s why groups in 12 countries staged protests on 13th September demanding an end to them. From Dublin and Budapest to Seoul and Seattle, groups joined to make the day truly international.

 

In December groups took part in another Europe-wide pyjama party across 13 cities demanding more night trains. The Pyjama Party for Night Trains saw people dressing up in their sleepwear and bringing pillows to dance on night train platforms demanding an end to night train cancellations and the creation of a fully connected, affordable European night train network.

 

Bolstering the Movement

As ever, the Stay Grounded network worked hard to produce information, materials, and collaborations that would support and further the movement. The Greenwashing Working Group produced an updated version of the biofuels factsheet as well as a summary factsheet that contains the key information from the other 8 factsheets. We also published three more of our inspirational airport struggles blog posts – looking at what can be learnt from successful struggles against airport expansions. The first was on the lessons learnt from Barbuda Airport, the second was on the campaign against El Prat in Barcelona, and the third was on the struggle for climate justice at King County International Airport. Beyond this we also ran more of our trainings on Aviation and Climate Justice with a great turn out and interesting discussions.

 

Countering COP

Following a busy year of connecting with anti-capitalist social movements in 2024, the Stay Grounded regional network of Latin America and the Caribbean took off (by land) to travel between Mexico and Belém as part of the Mesoamerican Caravan for Climate and for Life. Travelling in resistance to the destruction of the earth, they headed towards COP30 with a clear message: “The real solutions come from the people organised from below – not the summits of those who caused the crisis.” They faced repression on the way, with the caravan being denied entry to Nicaragua under a dictatorship desperate to crush social movements. But the caravan continued and in Costa Rica they denounced ethnocide and ecocide caused by the Maya Tren in front of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

 

We Saw Wins

Despite the disturbing political shift to the right, the Stay Grounded network saw wins! In 2024, Victor Orban proposed an EU-wide ban on a jet fuel tax. We put up a fight and Stay Grounded’s supporters sent 34,000 emails objecting to the proposal. We’ll never know how decisive this was in defeating the plan but we do know that it disappeared and we’ve not heard a peep about it since! In July, our member GALBA, celebrated a victory in challenging Leeds Bradford Airport’s attempt to rewrite the night flying rules. The airport wanted to reinterpret the rules to fly an unlimited number of planes at night. GALBA and the local council challenged this and their challenge was upheld which was great news. In September, Korea’s Seoul Administrative Court ruled against plans for the construction of Saemangeum airport over environmental concerns. This was a landmark ruling that came after sustained pressure from activists.

 

No More Airport Expansions

Despite the wins, 2025 was also a year of governments reviving airport expansion projects that had long been off the table. We saw the revival of expansion plans for Heathrow Airport in London, El Prat in Barcelona, and Roissy despite years of campaigning having against them. That’s why in 2026 a key focus of the network will be to demand an end to airport expansion projects across Europe through a coordinated campaign. Keep an eye on our website and social media channels for updates. This year we look forward to working together in 2026 and to fostering closer collaborations between members of our growing international network!