The protests of COP26: Why are the

The protests of COP26: why are the people dissatisfied?

Toby (Year 9)

Picture this: October 31st, 2021. Delegates of 197 countries around the world make their way to the Scottish Exhibition and Conference centre to discuss the latest strategies to combat climate change. Of course, since COP21 took place in Paris, the parties have been telling both their people and the media that they are doing everything in their power to save the environment on the home turf. However, COP26 has been labelled the most crucial one that has ever been held. Why, if since 2015 countries have been supposedly working harder than ever, is this true? All around the Scottish Exhibition and Conference centre is quiet. All of the delegates spend two weeks discussing strategies to mitigate and adapt to deal with the effects of climate change. There is no external stress on any of the speakers to make the first bold movements and multiple agreements are made between various regions to strengthen bonds, support, and funding for the experimental steps about to be taken by many. Soon after the changes are implemented, the world begins a new green age, an Earth rid of global warming and humans and animals live sideby-side in a world fair to all.

Of course, the world today is not like this and most likely will never become totally perfect because of one thing: People. The masses are the true voices of the delegates at COP26. A speaker is constrained as to what they are allowed to say because there is external pressure, heaps of it. It takes the form of rallies and marches outside the centre and the constant demands for fairness and equity for the planet must be heard and acted upon. Democratically speaking, a representative from a country such as India could come under heavy fire from the people for saying that they are prepared to give up using oil at this very moment, India being a developing country, still heavily reliant on coal and oil. The reality is that nobody will ever really be ready to switch from fossil fuels to renewables, but as the peoples calls echo louder down the streets and roads and into the halls and then the ears of those in power, a force is being conjured, one that will eventually tip a country into changing their ways. The hardest step is over when that happens, it is just a matter of bravery, boldness, and preparedness to lose a little bit of money for a short amount of time. When put this way, world leaders appear as cowards.

This year, the COP26 Coalition (the board who organised the marches and protests) announced that more than 100000 people took part in at least one protest.

This puts COP26 as the most protested COP ever, but why were the people marching and what is it exactly that they want? The most common answer is that they were demanding immediate action against climate change. Effectively, the people have had enough of their leaders procrastinating and refusing to put into motion any plans they have to do anything. Greta Thunberg, a Swedish activist who is only 19 years of age, declared to one of the rallies,’ The people in power can continue to live in their bubble filled with their fantasies…’ This is exactly what the mostly middle-class protesters are trying to eliminate. Bringing the people with more influence, power, and money down to their own level will not only make the population more supportive of them as they have the courage to place themselves in the shoes of an ordinary citizen, but with the support, the leader will be spurred more than ever to do the one thing that democracy is intended for: Driving, but with the people as the instructor. This is one reason that the protestors at COP26 felt it was their duty to march the streets.

Secondly, people are continuing to protest because plans that have been originally initiated or set to begin taking effect have either been postponed or shut down and abandoned. This is what the marchers are most concerned and angry about, because these are promises made to them by the leaders that they elected, being revoked. The people who have been made to feel as though they have been a part of the journey to a cleaner world have been pretty much left in the dust by fickle politicians. The most prominent example of this is the titular slogan, ‘Keep 1.5 alive.’ At COP21 in Paris five years ago, an increase in global temperature averages of 1.5 degrees was made the threshold, the point of no return. The governments and delegates failed to keep this goal in sight during the last couple of years because this threshold has been crossed. The goal has now been shifted to 3 degrees, but it is not as though this ‘betrayal’ has been forgotten because the people will not soon forget how close we will come to an uninhabitable Earth. They feel like they are expendable, obstacles for leaders and speakers to overcome, in order to disguise the fact that the people in charge are doing nothing. Frustration has been mounting for many years, and when something like this is done to the masses, one can expect backlash of the most devastating kind.

Colette Pichon Battle, founder and executive director of the Gulf Coast Centre for Law and Policy in Louisiana said, ‘We’ve got to decolonize ourselves and understand that all these things... are rooted in an economy…’ The point being made here is that all of the focus is now on keeping economies afloat, not on stopping the ever-impending threat of climate change. However, this can undoubtedly be changed. More protesting and expression of feelings on what we must do to stop an apocalypse crashing down will eventually get through to someone. That someone is not certain yet, but when they do make the sudden jump from fossil fuels to renewables, other countries will follow, not necessarily because they want to make a world a better place, but purely to keep their own reputations up and to facilitate their winning spot in the next general election. It is no secret that politicians are and will always be selfish, but they are the only ones who can lead us into the new age of green energy. So, with them on our side, we can finally make good on our mistakes towards the ecosystems and habitats across the globe, and work on plans for a better world for all of us.

References https://www.google.com/search?client=s afari&rls=en&q=how+long+did+cop26+la st&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

https://www.google.com/search?client=s afari&rls=en&q=how+many+people+ralli ed+at+cop26&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ukscotland-59185007 https://www.google.com/search?client=s afari&rls=en&q=why+did+people+march +at+cop26&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ news/976/cpsprodpb/BCBC/ production/_121461384_071792390-1.jpg