Civil
The formal negotiations began in the first week, and the heads of state outlined their vision while praising their country as the most “ambitious” in terms of climate policy.
In this way, many people try to divert their audience away from the billions of fossil fuel subsidies that are still injected into the most climate-damaging industries every year.
Despite official claims to the contrary, Glasgow is still known by many locals as the most unique COP ever.
One of the main reasons for this is that many people Did not get a visa in time to participate, Especially from civil society organizations.People warned from the beginning “COP26 will be the whitest and most privileged person in history”.
While lining up for coffee in the West End of Glasgow, full of activists, I talked with two senior civil society leaders from the Climate Action Network and the Wanted War at the COP.
congratulate
Both are very angry, expressing their anger at being excluded from key negotiations, which is the common destiny of many other civil society participants. “I was scared, as the *** showed, they just shut us out.”
The People’s Summit, called “anti-COP” by the organizers, is at the center of the second field of activity. The COP26 Alliance organized a three-day program of extensive talks and seminars outside the inaccessible COP official venue.
All events are open to the public. The topics ranged from the feminist climate justice group and the competitive vision of the Green New Deal to the climate-related marginalization of Western Sahara, to the space dedicated to anti-oppression and BIPOC activists.
The most interesting event I participated in was the so-called “sports rally”, which crowded the benches of the Adelaide Baptist Church.
This is one of the few spaces where “inside” people report what is discussed in daily negotiations. However, these speeches seemed to focus mainly on congratulating the activists who attended, and did not provide information about what was happening around the negotiating table.
Negotiator
In my opinion, one of the few successful examples linking sports to representative spaces seems to be the issue of climate restoration.
Salem HookThe botanist from Bangladesh told Ecologist: “We have entered the era of loss and damage that I call.”
For years, he and other civil society groups have urged the United Nations to integrate this topic by asking a simple question: What do those most responsible for this crisis owe those most affected?
Loss and damage are the focus of the Global Day of Action on November 6, and then become the subject of formal negotiations on the following Monday.
This is considered a major victory. As a senior civil society negotiator from South Africa told me, losses and damages are “closest to the compensation we will receive.”
Diversity
However, the final transaction does not include any substantial loss and damage. As many people have said, the US$100 billion promised in the Paris Agreement is only a drop in the ocean, but it is still an unfulfilled promise.
However, others in the climate movement believe that this focus on sports collection, knowledge exchange, and mutual training is not enough.
As a slogan of Extinction Rebellion (XR) puts it, a comfortable dialogue between like-minded activists does not put pressure on negotiators to act immediately, “because it is too late.” The third main event space in Glasgow takes place on the street.
Tens of thousands of people came to St. George’s Square to listen to other famous climate strikers such as Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate.
The parade through Glasgow city centre on November 6, 2021 showcases the diversity of climate movement.
Disobedience
In addition to established groups, many rally points in Kelvin Grove Park are also distributed by agenda and status: immigration justice, faith, unions, Glasgow community, youth strikers, housing, biodiversity, bicycles, and leadership A group of indigenous activists in the parade came from a particularly powerful team in the Amazon Basin.
After the Glasgow Green parade, a fire truck from the Fire Brigade Union greeted the protesters with the slogan: “Great men are great because we kneel. Let us get up.”
However, there are strong disagreements in the movement regarding the strategic purpose of such demonstrations.
“The COP is over, what’s next?” This is the title of an event centered on this question by famous XR and Insulate British (IB) activists.
There has been a heated debate within XR on whether to participate in COP26. Some people believe that we need to save resources for mass civil disobedience in the spring, while others, including XR Scotland, have decided to use COP for civil disobedience and mobilization.
Dissatisfied
As Roger Hallam, the co-founder of Insulate British, said at the event: “When facing evil, you either resist or complicity… Citizen disobedience is our moral obligation.”
The effectiveness of direct action is also evident in Glasgow: 21 members Scientist rebellion Locking yourself together to prevent King George V’s bridge attracted media attention almost as much as the 150,000 people parade.
IB further advances this logic. Since we only have three to four years to avoid a complete disaster, this time is due to David King, the former chief scientist of the United Kingdom, now is not the time to hold rallies and marches.
As Haarlem said: “We have three or four years. What are people doing? March? Are you fucking kidding me? Parade? In 1984 you can have a parade, that’s okay. But in 2021 Year? This is disgusting!”
Haarlem claims that, especially among young people, dissatisfaction with their future being burned is so rampant that only a small but major victory is required, and millions of people may take to the streets to force the government to take action. .
Be killed
This is why IB and XR are preparing for an unprecedented wave of civil disobedience in British history to achieve what the COP has so tragically failed to achieve: rapid, radical, and justice-centric climate action.
The climate movement at the COP is divided into at least three camps: those who try to lobby negotiators in the blue zone, justice, decolonization, and cross-congregation, and event-based activism (such as the People’s Summit), and those who use it Coming to prepare for a large-scale escalation of civil disobedience after Glasgow.
However, the bravest and most determined defenders of the livable planet are mostly absent. They are the indigenous people who protect their land from the violent invasion of the global extractive industry.
In a heartbreaking protest outside the high fence of the Glasgow Convention Center, indigenous women activists from Turtle Island in Canada held a sacred ceremony for their missing and killed sisters and friends.
smokescreen
Many of them have become victims of the violence committed by logging company employees in what they call “human camps” in the Aboriginal heartland.
The mere existence of these will increase violent attacks on Aboriginal women, making Aboriginal women 12 times more likely to be killed than ordinary Canadians.
One of the activists, Seam Hamilton, told the crowd: “Remember my face, look at my face. Because when I’m gone, you can go find me.”
COP26 is over. But life and death struggles in many communities will continue, perhaps more desperate and determined than ever. For us, the most important thing is to look at the protests as a smokescreen in the context of the actual summit.
impossible
The protests and the global relations they promote are the driving forces of change at various levels.
The Climate Games will prioritize indigenous land struggles, “moderate flanks”, “cooperation”, escalation of civil disobedience, or destructive behavior?
These strategic choices are important, and climate-conscious scholars and policy makers should pay close attention to the decisions that will be made after the COP.
We don’t know what they will be, but one thing is certain: you won’t read them in the newspapers until a new form of movement that cannot be ignored suddenly appears.
This author
Dr. Tobias Müller is an affiliated lecturer at the Department of Political and International Studies at the University of Cambridge and a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University.He is the principal investigator of the cross-climate justice research project funded by the new institute, recently published in nature.
