New Scientist - USA (2021-11-20)

26 | New Scientist | 20 November 2021

Views Columnist

M

Y FIRST few days at the

COP26 climate summit

felt like an extended

metaphor for the state of the

planet. I was due to arrive on

Sunday, but my train was cancelled

because of extreme weather.

When I finally got there, chaos

reigned and tragedies of the

commons were playing out.

The venue in Glasgow, UK, was

so overpopulated that accessing

sessions was all but impossible.

Chairs, tables and wall sockets had

sprouted what looked like shanty

towns around them as delegates

fought to corner scarce resources.

Food outlets ran short, bins

overflowed and tempers frayed.

But these problems were for

the little people. As I searched for

my bearings, I was brushed aside

by security guards clearing a

path for two figures whose body

language exuded “VIP”. It was

prime ministers Narendra Modi

of India and Boris Johnson of

the UK, who strode purposefully

through the crowds before quickly

disappearing into a gated area out

of^ bounds to the plebs.

Amid the disarray, a palpable

sense of progress was emerging.

However, as the first week wore

on, a familiar sense of gloom

and despair began to descend.

Pledges are easy. Action isn’t.

Brazil backtracked on its

deforestation promise. Reports

that emissions cuts promised thus

far would keep warming below 2°C

turned out to be so much hot air.

I grabbed a word with Gabriel Kpaka

of the Sierra Leone Meteorological

Agency, who speaks on behalf of

the Intergovernmental Panel on

Climate Change’s Least Developed

Countries Group. He was less than

impressed, pointing out that

billions pledged to help the

poorest countries – often the

most affected by climate change

though least responsible for

emissions and least able to cope –

had still not materialised. The

pledges were made in 2015.

Another constituency with little

to celebrate is Indigenous peoples.

They also bear a disproportionate

burden of a problem they did little

or nothing to create, but to which

they hold powerful solutions.

According to the United Nations

Environment Programme, even

though Indigenous peoples make

up just 6 per cent of the global

population, their lands shelter

about 80 per cent of remaining

biodiversity. In a sane world, they

would be lauded as climate and

biodiversity heroes and their

advice eagerly sought by the

Modis and Johnsons of this

world. But all too often they are

ignored and marginalised and

their lands sacrificed on the altar

of the West’s most destructive

industries – oil and gas, mining,

logging and agribusiness.

Depressingly, Indigenous

peoples were a marginal presence

at COP26, in part because of

difficulty in complying with strict

covid-19 travel rules, but also

because their voices aren’t seen

as important. But they were out in

force at the Fridays For Future rally

that filled the streets of Glasgow

with an estimated 25,000 people

at the end of the summit’s first

week. Greta Thunberg was the

headline act and she delivered

a powerful (if not entirely fair)

rebuke to world leaders. Before

she took to the stage, activists

from Indigenous communities

vented their fury and frustration

at inaction and injustice, not just

at COP26, but in the years, decades

and even centuries preceding it.

We Westerners may sometimes

feel angry and powerless in the

face of climate inaction, but

believe me, we can only dip a toe

into the bottomless well of anger

and powerlessness felt by many

Indigenous peoples. To them,

climate change is just the latest

helping of a grisly gruel of

exploitation, colonialism,

racism and slavery that the

global north has been serving

up to them for centuries.

“We are here today because

we know that COP26 won’t do

anything,” Namibian activist

Ina-Maria Shikongo told the

crowd. “They want to continue

the massacre that they have been

responsible for for hundreds of

years already. Your world is built

on the blood of our people. You

people have to be held accountable

for the genocide and ecocide you

have been causing. You cannot

keep on oppressing our people.

You cannot keep on coming to our

countries claiming that you are

bringing development when all

you are bringing is devastation.”

Back in the conference hall, a

side event called 10 New Insights

In Climate Science warned that to

be effective, global action must be

just. That means the richest 1 per

cent cutting their emissions by

a factor of 30 so that the poorest

can increase theirs by 50 per cent.

I am writing this before the

summit wraps up, so don’t know

the final score. But I have little

doubt that the justice demanded

and deserved by low-income

nations and Indigenous peoples

won’t be served. On those terms,

COP26 will be a failure. But the

fight goes on. “We want change,”

said Shikongo, to huge cheers.

“We want justice. We are tired.

We will never give up.” ❚

“ Climate change is

the latest helping

of a grisly gruel

of exploitation,

colonialism, racism

and slavery”

It’s not a fair COP To be effective, global action on climate change

must be just. That means compensating Indigenous peoples, but

also learning from them, writes Graham Lawton

No planet B

This column appears

monthly. Up next week:

Annalee Newitz

What I’m reading

And Away..., comedian

Bob Mortimer’s

autobiography

What I’m watching

The new season of What

We Do in the Shadows

What I’m working on

A ton of ideas and

leads from COP26

Graham’s week

Graham Lawton is a staff

writer at New Scientist and

author of This Book Could

Save Your Life. You can follow

him @ grahamlawton