By Leo Beaton, age 12
“Make Billionaires Pay” was a march held on Sept. 20, 2025, to stop climate change and fight for more migrant rights and gender equity. The core demands of the protest were to shut down billionaires, fascists, and polluters, according to the march’s website. Some other demands were to fund the future, protect the global majority, and to defend Mother Earth.
The protest was held on the anniversary of the March to End Fossil Fuels and on the first day of the U.N. General Assembly, which was important because a lot of world leaders were there to see it.
This protest followed the “Make Polluters Pay” movement, the March to End Fossil Fuels in 2023, and the “No Kings” march in June. Another No Kings march took place on Oct. 18, 2025.
The Make Billionaires Pay movement is targeting billionaires because they are contributing the most to climate change, and they have the most power and money.
The protesters brought art pieces of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk with bloody globes in their hands. They also brought a “Climate Polluters Bill” the size of an Olympic swimming pool, symbolizing the costs of climate change.
The protest also focused on migrant rights and anti-militarism, because climate change is forcing people to have to leave their homes. Climate-related disasters have forced 250 million people to move from their homes in the last 10 years, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency, and this type of migration is going to affect a lot more people going forward. The protesters think we need to welcome people that come here because they need help.
The protest’s organizers also wanted to point out that the countries with the least emissions are the ones suffering the most from emissions, according to Inside Climate News.
“We’re in a moment where the threat is so large that it is not useful to have mobilizations that focus on one issue at a time,” said Tamika Middleton, chief political and strategy officer at the Women’s March, to Inside Climate News.
A challenge of the climate change movement is that it feels distant, unlike some other crises, and that it doesn’t affect your day-to-day life as much as some other problems, such as high grocery prices.
This protest was part of Climate Week NYC in September. During this week, there were hundreds of events about climate change, “from policy gatherings and climate fintech discussions to community-led initiatives and art installations,” according to Newsweek.
Other cities that had protests on Sept. 20 were San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Milwaukee, Dallas, and Key West, Florida.
Climate Week wasn’t the end of these kinds of protests. There will continue to be movements about climate change until it has gotten better.
