viii: The Climate Column
COP26 Patrick Dunne I am writing this article on what is expected to be the last day of the COP26 conference, Friday 12th November 2021. So, where are we at? What have we learned about the likelihood of staying below a 1.5 degrees average temperature rise? Who has made real and meaningful commitments to phasing out fossil fuel exploration, extraction, and exploitation? Who is willing to stump up financial reparations to the most affected people and areas (MAPA)? Who has emerged as a global leader, ready to take on the enormous task of global societal transformation, to phase out our unjust economic and energy systems, to lead us to a more equitable, more sustainable future? The answers, I’m afraid, make for grim reading. This COP got off to a bad start, with snubs from China’s President Xi and Russia’s Putin, followed by Biden’s American economic agenda— which originally included punishments for industries and corporations who failed to curb emissions —effectively gutted by Democrat oil baron, Joe Manchin. The impacts of the Covid pandemic have weakened even New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, whilst domestic economic matters and revelations of corruption and sleaze stole both the headlines and the attention of Messrs. Biden and Johnson, respectively. The opening weekend speeches saw Prime Minister Johnson attempt to bluster inanely to a roomful of people who had actually read the briefings and the science for longer than it takes to dash off an amusing Telegraph article. The leaders of the MAPA countries gave impassioned speeches— the premier of Tuvalu addressing the COP whilst standing up to his thighs in rising seas (Guardian online, 2021) —but still their voices were drowned out by celebrity appearances and greenwashed adverts. We witnessed brazen rhetoric from Brazil’s President Bolsonaro and representatives from the Australian Government, urging further deforestation and
new investment in fossil fuels. It tuned out the largest delegation was made up of lobbyists from the fossil fuel industries, with more than 500 individuals counted. It’s reasonable to assume that the overall corporate network was far higher, including banks, insurance companies and others who fund, structure, and support our planet’s mega-corporations. You couldn’t make it up, although it often seems like they are. There was much talk of the $100billion owed by rich nations to those smaller, vulnerable nations who are most affected by the crisis. The reparation payments, intended to help adaptation and mitigation, were supposed to be given in 2020, but are now due in 2022. This seemingly generous sum is, it turns out, largely made up of loans which will create debt to benefit the rich nations. It’s also a drop in the bucket, given the loss and damage created by emissions from the rich countries. So, at the end of COP26, the likelihood of staying below 1.5 degrees seems all but gone, with various assessments of the pledges from this conference suggesting that 1.9 degrees of warming by end of the century is highly likely, and anything up to 4 degrees is still a possibility. On the plus side, an international coalition— including countries from Denmark to Costa Rica, but not the UK —has formed to lead countries away from fossil fuels (Shankleman & Dlouhy, 2021). It is a small, bright light in a pretty dark fog of weak promises and greenwashed pledges. The COP26 Coalition— a union of various protest organisations —has provided inspirational talks and the opportunity to build and strengthen networks and ties with a range of international and indigenous leaders and communities. Together, they are holding international leaders and corporate interests to account for the local climate crisis unfolding all over the globe. It has been truly heartening to see local and indigenous leaders at the forefront of marches, protests, panel 35
