Your COP26 breakup guide: what happened & how to move on
Your COP26 breakup guide: what happened & how to move on
On picking yourself up from the debris of two chaotic weeks in Glasgow.
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I don’t want to tell you about Glasgow.
This email is about Paul, the Salvation Army volunteer at the community centre on Houldsworth Street who told me he’d come up from London to help distribute surplus food.
Or maybe it’s about the fact that I sat in a corner of the conference of the century and felt useless. And tired. Tired of travel, tired of the ‘hot takes’ on Twitter and tired of moderating my expectations for a liveable future.
Maybe I should tell you about the fifty or more young people who were sleeping on a church floor to hold protests outside the COP26 venue.
I want to describe how five indigenous leaders from Brazil told their stories in an office block in Scotland because half of them couldn’t even get through the door of the building where their futures are being discussed.
COP26 is an easy place to lose yourself. We should know, we were all there. In person or on Twitter or in our nightmares.
I was there, in the Blue Zone and Green Zone, but most of the time drifting through the Grey Zone. Half hoping that political action will tip the balance in favour of a future we can bear to imagine, half wanting to tear my lanyard off and scream.
Desperate to be there, desperate to get out. Stuck by choice in a giant airless room listening to politicians weigh up whether it really matters if islands sink into the sea.
And nothing I can say is original. I have no ‘takes’ on COP26. Because we have found every goddamn way we can think of to say we want to live. We want justice and a future and humanity. That’s it. That’s all.
‘Make or break for the climate,’ they said. What a great set-up for stress and sleep deprivation for anyone who would quite like to see 2040. What a way to pin the hopes of a generation on two weeks in a windy and wet Scottish city.
Now it’s nearly over. So… what happens next?
No really, I’m asking. Because I don’t know, of course I don’t.
But what I do know is that in the Blue Zone I felt far away from everything that matters to me. But talking to Paul in a random Salvation Army church and watching the Green New Deal Rising group hand out dry socks after 5 hours marching in the rain made me feel human.
I’m breaking up with COP26 and chasing that feeling of connection, connection that a giant fluorescent-lit world can never offer. Connection to the land we’re trying to protect. To ourselves and to each other. Where global pledges are lacking and frustrating, local opportunities to do good are abundant.
I invite you to let the dust of COP settle, shake off that conference hangover and join me in seeing what good we can create. No accreditation required.
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What’s Going On?
WHAT HAPPENED AT COP26:
Pledge roundup:
20 countries pledge to stop financing fossil fuel projects abroad by end of 2022.
Useful: What do we need to reach net zero by 2050?45 countries commit to protect nature and shift to sustainable farming.
Over 100 countries commit to ending deforestation by 2030.
Useful: Will this be enough to save forests?India commits to net zero by 2070 [watch their statement here].
Related: Why is India a big deal for carbon emissions?The United States and the European Union launch a global methane pledge to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030.
Useful: Is this enough?US and China announce closer climate cooperation in a joint declaration.
Related: Why is this a big deal?Financial sector commits $130 trillion to net zero transition.
Useful: Will this be enough? Will they even do it?Several countries commit to more gender-sensitive climate policy action.
Useful: Why are women worse impacted by the climate crisis?33 countries pledge to phase out fossil fuel vehicles by 2040.
Related: How do we get to zero-emission transport?[Updated 13 Nov] COP26 conclusion agreement reached.
Useful: What does it say?
Lots of inequality:
There were almost twice as many fossil fuel lobbyists as indigenous delegates.
Useful: Which countries were most represented at COP26?Most exclusionary conference ever? The people who didn’t get a say at COP26.
Related: Why are people calling it #COP26SoWhite?14 Pacific island states but only 3 leaders were able to attend because of travel restrictions.
Related: How vaccine & visa inequality excluded participants from around the world.Youth activists complain their presence is tokenistic.
Related: Youth activists share their stories of tackling the climate crisis.Landlords in Glasgow tried to charge delegates over £8000 a night.
Related: Activists reopen disused building to host COP26 attendees.Police raid an activist hub in the city, unclear why.
Related: Police criticised for raid.
Also:
Over 100,000 people marched on the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice.
Useful: Rewatch the speeches by activists at the rally here.Sick of COP inaction, over 12,000 people signed up for the People’s Summit for Climate Justice.
Useful: Catch up on some of the sessions on COP26 Coalition’s YouTube channel.Brazilian Amazon community attacked while delegate is at COP26.
Related: Record number of attacks against environmental & land defenders in 2020.
Summary of the summaries:
Even with the new pledges, the gap between promises and implementation mean we’re still set for over 2.4 degrees of warming.
WHAT HAPPENED LITERALLY ANYWHERE OUTSIDE GLASGOW:
UN report finds that climate adaptation costs are 5 to 10 times greater than the financing that currently exists.
Useful: What is ‘climate finance’?Carbon emissions of the richest 1% are 30 times greater than what is needed to stay within 1.5 degree limit.
Useful: Why carbon emissions are an inequality issue.The rich can spur climate action - or make it worse.
Useful: What are the uber-rich doing that is so carbon-intensive?One billion people at risk of extreme heat with 2 degree temperature rise.
Useful: What’s it like living in 50 degrees heat?
So Now What Do I Do?
LEARN
Watch the Seat at the Table YouTube series of people at the frontlines of the climate crisis.
Tune into the 10th annual forum of Business and Human Rights from the 29th November - 1st December.
TAKE ACTION
Check out the previous Green Fix edition for a master list of climate action campaigns you can support during & after COP26.
Apply to be a volunteer Regional Assistant for Youth and Environment Europe! Deadline 15th November.
Make the Flight Free 2022 pledge and share your story with We Stay on the Ground to be featured!
Calling writers! Apply to join the Changemakers Authors Cohort for a yearlong programme on using narratives for social justice. Deadline 20th November.
CHANGE THE SYSTEM
Sign the Greenpeace petition to get Shell to stop hiding behind carbon offsetting promises.
Sign the Stand.Earth petition to get JP Morgan Chase and UBS to stop funding oil and gas projects in the Amazon.
UK folks: Join the Green New Deal Rising welcome call on the 17th November at 6pm GMT.
Support the Paid to Pollute campaign ahead of their court case against the UK government this December.
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