OMNI UN COP26 Glasgow Followup, #1, 11-14/ 11-17, 2021

 

OMNI UN COP26 Glasgow Followup, #1, 11-14/ 11-17, 2021

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology

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CONTENTS NOV. 14-
2014

Corporate Accountability 11-14

2015

Morning Star Online  11-15

2016
Earth Overshoot 11-16
 Extinction Rebellion 11-16

Avaaz 11-16

Alexandria Octavia-Cortez  11-16

2017

Insider, Sierra Magazine, 11-17

Canadian Foreign Policy Institute, 11-17

 

TEXTS NOV. 14-

NOVEMBER 14, 2021

As we run out of time to save the planet, COP26 ends in ‘utter betrayal’

Originally published: The Canary by Peadar O'Cearnaigh (November 14, 2021 )  |  - Posted Nov 16, 2021

Climate Change, Environment, Movements, StrategyGlobalNewswireExtinction Rebellion, Glasgow Climate Pact, Greta Thunberg, United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26)

Following two weeks of negotiations, the UN climate summit COP26 concluded with the Glasgow Climate Pact. The supposed aim of this pact, signed by 197 countries, is to keep hopes alive of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels by the year 2100.

As reported by the Guardian, the pact has been labelled “imperfect”. And prime minister Boris Johnson said “there is still a huge amount more to do in the coming years”. The UK, which hosted COP26, says the pact keeps alive hopes that we’ll avoid the worst of global warming. However, environmental activist Greta Thunberg was having none of it:

“Utter betrayal”

As the leaders were putting the final touches to their pact, Thunberg predicted a spin on the outcome. Then came a warning from environmental journalist George Monbiot:
Earlier Monbiot had been even more damning. He called the pact a “total fiasco” and a
pathetic limp rag of a document. Demonstrating that [COP26 leaders] are not here to protect life on Earth but to protect the fossil fuel industry from challenge: MORE  https://mronline.org/2021/11/16/as-we-run-out-of-time-to-save-the-planet-cop26-ends-in-utter-betrayal/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=as-we-run-out-of-time-to-save-the-planet-cop26-ends-in-utter-betrayal&mc_cid=8407822def&mc_eid=ab2f7bf95e

 

We will not be defeated

 

Corporate Accountability  The Liability Road map 11-14-21 Forwarded by Louise Mann 3:49 PM (2 hours ago) Louise, In the final hours of the U.N. climate treaty negotiations, COP26, I was on a call with Corporate Accountability climate organizers around the world. They said people on the frontlines of the climate crises brought the policy solutions. They brought the fire and their moral outrage. And together, we all fought like hell to make international progress on addressing the climate crisis. That includes you, the thousands of people who amplified the demands of folks on the frontlines and pressured the U.S., U.K., and EU delegations from all sides. But our governments failed us. This might not be the story you hear in the media. The U.S., U.K., the EU, and other rich countries advancing the agenda of Big Polluters engaged in a whole set of devious, underhanded tactics. They hit hard and played dirty to paint themselves as the saviors of the climate crisis and declare negotiations a success -- while they set the world on a path to 2.4 degrees Celsius of warming. And, in this most inaccessible and inequitable COP, the governments of countries most impacted by the crisis did not ultimately band together to fight back. They did not heed the calls of the people they represented. Yet again, governments failed to deliver the bold and transformative policy that people around the world -- especially people on the frontlines of the crisis -- demanded, need, and deserve. Here’s what our climate organizers had to say, just hours after the final gavel fell. “The Global North and polluting corporations have not only caused great damage to our world -- but continue to weaken global resolve to own up to the consequences of their actions. They must pay. And: as a Global South climate activist, I feel great sorrow and embarrassment that our governments have, for 26 COPs, allowed the Global North to bully them into forgetting the voices of the grassroots and the front lines. We entrusted these so-called leaders with the power to negotiate for a better future, but they have let us down. So now it is in the hands of the people -- we must take back our power. It’s our turn. We can make big polluters pay. Demand governments follow the will of the people. And create the future we need.”     - Hellen Neima, Africa Climate Director “COP26 has effectively buried the opportunity to stabilize global temperatures below 1.5 degrees and condemned us to false solutions, impunity, and irrationality. Regardless of the success story that so-called leaders are selling to the world, we know that this only means more suffering for billions. We don’t believe them anymore! Now is the time to build solidarity with grassroots struggles that are challenging the powers and systems that have gotten us here, and build a just pathway forward.”       - Martin Vilela, Latin America Climate Campaign Coordinator “Why did we trust a process led by the same governments that are letting social, Indigenous, and environmental defenders be killed at home? Governments that overpower, loot, and impoverish nations? Governments that wave the flag of democracy and development to wage wars, destroy, and kill? Why did we trust a process that welcomed the corporations that created the crisis and are destroying our world, livelihoods, and health, while shutting out the people suffering from this violence? This process has failed us, and we must let it crumble. It is time for the people to reclaim control of our future, rather than let it die in the incapable hands of this useless process.”   Nathalie Rengifo Álvarez, Latin America Climate Director As you can see, we’re not done fighting. Our allies and Global South organizers have been saying for decades that the true power for change lies in mobilizing people power. And that power is everywhere, from Indigenous communities in the Americas, to Ogoniland in Nigeria, to island communities. Around the world, Indigenous and local people -- especially women -- are putting their bodies and lives on the lines to stop extractive, polluting industries for all of our future. Today, I invite you to join me in solidarity with these frontline communities. We all can take action from where we are to hold Big Polluters accountable, even if our governments have failed to do so. The Liability Roadmap is a tool anyone can use to take steps to hold Big Polluters accountable in their communities. Since we co-launched it with a global coalition of allies, organizations, and collectives last year, members like you and people around the world have been using it. If you aren’t already, you too, can be part of this global movement. If we are to have a just transition and a viable future for all, it will be because of the people -- that’s Hellen, Nathalie, Martin, thousands of climate justice warriors on their way home from Glasgow, you, me, and the millions of people around the world who want a different future. And this gives me hope. We are not defeated; we are rising. And together, we will win.   Onward, Patti Lynn Pronouns: she/her/hers Executive Director Corporate Accountability

COP26 was a failure. But the people’s alternative can still be a success.   Editor.  Mronline.org (11-16-21)

Has COP26, which has wound up in Glasgow after two weeks of political showboating and grassroots protest, been a failure?   
Originally published: Morning Star Online by Morning Star Online Desk (November 2021 )  |  - Posted Nov 15, 2021

Climate Change, Environment, Movements, StrategyGlobalNewswireUnited Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26)

Has COP26, which has wound up in Glasgow after two weeks of political showboating and grassroots protest, been a failure?

In one sense the answer is yes. Lobbying by fossil fuel interests has seriously weakened proposals to phase out subsidies for coal, oil and gas.

The richest nations tried to present themselves as climate saviours while shunting the blame onto developing countries: witness the way U.S. President Joe Biden accused China of “a lack of urgency” on global warming when U.S. emissions per head are more than twice China’s and will still be higher than China’s and India’s put together even if Washington meets all its 2030 reduction targets–which it won’t, if the trouble Biden’s green infrastructure legislation has run into in the U.S. Senate is any guide.

There have been impressive-sounding pledges on financial assistance to the developing world; but these may share the fate of the 2009 promise to offer $100 billion (£75bn) a year to help global South countries adapt to the threat of climate change.

The sum has not been met. It is dwarfed by the more than $3 trillion in subsidies G20 countries have provided for fossil fuel industries since 2015, or for that matter the $750bn spent by the United States on its military over the last year.

If the agreement sounds like too little, too late, the reality is worse, because the politicians signing up cannot be trusted.

Brazil has signed up to ending deforestation by 2030: yet under President Jair Bolsonaro this is accelerating, not slowing. This August we learned an area seven times the size of greater London had been felled in the last year alone, the worst assault on the Amazon in a decade.

Indonesia combines the same promise with plans to double palm oil production in the next decade: presumably if it is serious about retiring the chainsaws in 2030 that’s because it doesn’t expect there to be any forest left.

Indigenous representatives placing the blame on colonialism have a point, and the destruction goes alongside trampling on indigenous rights from Brazil to India, where the Narendra Modi government perversely claims conservation as a reason to expel adivasis from their ancestral lands–depicting them, without evidence, as a threat to endangered wildlife–before awarding logging and mining contracts in the “protected” areas.

The “too little, too late” narrative is misleading because it implies governments are acting to address climate change but need to get their skates on. In fact the world’s wealthiest countries show no sign of abandoning business as usual.

The reason is obvious: an economic system that rewards short-term profit over long-term sustainability cannot reconcile itself to the logic of “keep it in the ground.”

And as capitalism has evolved it has become shorter and shorter-term in outlook: the length of time investors hang onto shares has been shrinking for decades, from around eight years in 1960 to just five months by 2020, incentivising reckless asset-stripping and plunder over long-term resource management.

This is not a system which is capable of addressing climate change, so the summit was a failure. Real action requires taking public control of the economy and removing “investors’” profits from the equation.

Yet the other summit–the mass demonstrations, the trade union and NGO meetings, the climate activists who joined striking workers on picket lines–can still be a success.

Unity between the labour movement and demonstrators for ecological and social justice is a precondition for transformative change. Only organised labour can challenge the power of capital: and a broad-based anti-monopolies alliance of unions with community and campaigning organisations could carry real political weight.

Since the defeat of Corbynism in 2019 the Establishment has done its best to silence or belittle anyone who believes that another world is possible. But the riotous “alternative” Cop26 shows that millions still do.

Monthly Review does not necessarily adhere to all of the views conveyed in articles republished at MR Online. Our goal is to share a variety of left perspectives that we think our readers will find interesting or useful. —Eds.

NOVEMBER 15??

NOVEMBER 16, 2021

Earth Overshoot info@earthovershoot.org via sendinblue.com	8:51 AM (44 minutes ago)
HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE?     THE CATCH-22 OF FOSSIL FUELS   The crux of the existential crisis facing almost 8 billion people was on full display in early November. In the same week that Joe Biden lectured world leaders in Glasgow at the Climate Summit (COP26) about the absolute necessity to reduce CO2 emissions to avoid catastrophic climate emergencies, he also implored Russia and OPEC to increase oil and gas production to reduce fossil energy prices.    Our global society is smack in the middle of a Catch-22.   TELL ME MORE         8 Billion Angels Documentary     Watch the documentary that creates hope and inspires action that can make a real difference in our pursuit of global sustainability.          Climate Change Poster & Lesson Plan   Inspire relevant discussion about the power of individual action in reducing climate change and humanity’s overall footprint on the environment.      Overshoot Country Map   The interactive Sustainability Map can help the public and leadership worldwide understand the impact population has on the social, economic and environmental wealth of a country and its peoples.        READ ALL ABOUT IT

 

Global Newsletter 58: The End of The World As We Know It

Extinction Rebellion via sendgrid.net  11-16-21	6:49 AM (1 hour ago)
(Web version in English... More languages incoming!) (Subscribe to this Newsletter.) An indigenous woman comforts a weeping Red Rebel in Glasgow during COP26. In this issue: DRC Rebels | Nigeria Rebels | Ecuador Rebels | Glasgow COP Rebellion Dear rebel, After all the fanfare, COP26 has failed. Not one of the G20 nations, the richest and most culpable for this crisis, will cut emissions to keep global heating even close to 1.5C. Global South nations have not been given the promised funds to rebuild from and defend against the extreme weather that already devastates their lands and people. Fossil fuel infrastructure will continue to expand and governments will continue to rig markets to encourage it. On all fronts, yet again, the can has been kicked down the road. Next year, we are promised, will be different. Next year real progress will be made. A Nigerian activist in Glasgow talks about how oil drilling has destroyed Africa for decades. Half a world away, another convention that will define our climate has also just finished. But this one, held in Cape Town, has been a roaring success. Africa Energy Week is a networking event designed to accelerate deals between regional governments and global fossil fuel companies. Africa is full of untapped oil and gas reserves. Contracts are being signed and vast infrastructure is being built to get it. African governments need to bring their people out of fuel poverty. Agreements should be in place to push renewables, and compensate them for keeping their fossil fuels in the ground. Instead, the fossil fuel industry sent more delegates to COP than any country, escaped binding restrictions, and is free to plunder, pollute, and profit as usual. Rebels march through the city of Butembo, DRC, to stop Virunga Park being drilled for oil. African rebels are bravely trying to push back against this suicidal system. In Action Highlights you can read about protests across the DRC, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. You can also find out how unfettered extractivism is causing ecocide and genocide in Ecuador and Brazil. Despite hosting another week of beautiful COP26 actions that championed Global South activists, Scottish rebels are angry. Understand why in COP Action Highlights. Our last issue was so stuffed with Global South action that we had technical problems sending it out. To those who received it twice, apologies. To those who never read it at all, why not check your junk mail folder, or read it on our website. Blood spills outside the Blue Zone on the last day of COP26. Photo: Max Withey The rallying cry of COP26 was to keep 1.5 alive. But the G20 leaders have left it to die, and instead breathed new life into the fossil fuel industry. The human cost of their negligence is terrifying to contemplate. These so-called leaders do not just have blood on their hands, they have it up to their waists. They wade through it. If they are not stopped, they will drown in it. For the good of all life, we must somehow wrestle power away from them. Get involved in XR wherever you are. Check out our global website, learn more about our movement, and connect with rebels in your local area. The XR Global Newsletter is brought to you by XR Global Support, a worldwide network of rebels who help XR chapters grow. Read previous issues here. Subscribe here. We are in a crucial phase of human history, and we need money to make our message heard. Anything you can give is appreciated. Support Our Rebellion Contents · Global South Action Highlights - DRC, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Ecuador, Brazil. · Glasgow Action Highlights - The Final Week of Rebellion outside COP26. · Actions Round Up - Senegal, Norway, Gambia, Tanzania, Germany, Cameroon, Bangladesh, Italy, Australia, UK, USA, Finland. · Humans of XR - Babu, Gambia. (MORE Web version in English...

We all did this

Bert Wander - Avaaz via uark.onmicrosoft.com	Nov 16, 2021, 11:43 PM (9 hours ago)
Long before the talks began, Avaaz was funding incredible indigenous leaders to come to Glasgow and make their voices heard. They didn't get everything they wanted, but the final text secured some important language on indigenous rights, and a recognition of the role indigenous cultures have in guiding our response to climate change. And we also funded negotiators from developing countries and youth activists to come to the talks.We rolled into town on the back of a series of hard hitting ads in Australia, Italy and Canada, all key power brokers on climate finance, demanding they unlock the talks and save lives by stumping up the 100 billion dollars that rich countries have promised but not yet delivered ... and on day 1 of the talks, we launched one of the fastest growing campaigns we've ever run -- a clarion call for climate justice in partnership with four inspiring youth leaders: Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate, Dominika Lasota, and Mitzi Tan. It reached 1.8 million signatures by the end of the talks! Together we got it all over the media just as world leaders were in town for the summit, and then we turned it onto a thirty page action plan that governments used in negotiations! Then our actions team took the media by storm with a powerful rally to "End Climate Betrayal". Avaazers in Glasgow showed up on short notice and held up many of the letters in the photo... and the event gave voice to inspiring young people and indigenous leaders from all over the world to deliver a powerful call for real action, not empty words. We partnered with parents groups fighting for their childrens' wellbeing, and helped get inspiring mothers all over the media calling for an end to fossil fuels. Here are six of these brave mothers delivering their call directly to Alok Sharma, the president of the conference. Meanwhile, a crack team of researchers teamed up with analysts from other great organisations to track toxic disinformation narratives that could derail climate action or harm climate activists. When Brazilian trolls started spreading lies about an inspiring indigenous activist who helped open the talks, we investigated, and issued an alert to the media to call out the lies and correct the record. Our advocacy team got busy writing our dream text for the deal, and shared it with literally hundreds of government officials and negotiators, persuading them to champion crucial action to keep climate safety within reach. Our work was particularly helpful to developing countries on the climate frontlines who had smaller delegations at the talks. And when former US President Obama rocked up to meet youth leaders, we teamed up with them to greet him with a wave of pressure. We demanded he keep a crucial promise he made 12 years earlier in Copenhagen to deliver billions in climate finance to vulnerable countries, putting the issue firmly in the spotlight. Meanwhile, the actions team joined up with an amazing group of artists and "Little Amal", a 3.5 metre tall puppet symbolising child refugees, who came to the talks to meet youth activists delivering our movement's campaign. Just look at this amazing photo! Then as the negotiations reached crunch time, we turned up the heat on the blockers. When the US pushed back on keeping a crucial promise to deliver money to vulnerable countries, we published a hard hitting ad in the FT and delivered it to US Secretary of State John Kerry. Check it out! And the media interest the ad created helped further raise the pressure for a breakthrough on finance, lending critical support to vulnerable countries at a key moment in negotiations.It all culminated in a compromise deal that saw governments agree to rapidly increase their efforts to limit warming to the crucial target of 1.5 degrees, and deliver billions more in life saving money for countries on the frontline of the climate crisis. For the first time, there was a formal recognition of the need to reduce coal, the filthiest energy source, and to cut the trillions in taxpayers' money propping up fossil fuels. But it’s nowhere near enough. That's where the grief comes from. Glasgow could and should have done much, much more. People are already dying in climate disasters, and beautiful habitats are already being lost. Right now, we're on track for at least 2.4°C of warming, enough to create a global catastrophe that will be measured in extinctions of amazing plants and animals, forced displacements, and unimaginable human suffering. We need an utter transformation in the scale and ambition of climate action. And we're going to get it. All over the world a powerful movement is rising. We're not alone. We're getting stronger and more powerful every day. And that's thanks to everyone who joined campaigns, funded our movement, showed up at protests, and made sure their voices were heard to secure the future we dream of, one where we live in peace with our planet. We won’t give up until we’ve made that dream real. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Bert, with the whole Avaaz team in Glasgow and around the world. Further reading on the COP26 outcome and the road ahead: · COP26: New global climate deal struck in Glasgow (BBC) · Cop26: the goal of 1.5C of climate heating is alive, but only just (The Guardian) · Was COP26 successful? Here's how climate summits make a difference (CNN)

 

 

 

COP26: explained, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

OcasioCortez.com

Tue, Nov 16, 7:14 PM (14 hours ago)

Dick, If you’ve been following Alexandria’s Instagram over the last week, you know that she’s been sharing a lot of “behind the scenes” footage from COP26 – the UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. 

Now that COP has officially concluded, we wanted to share some of Alexandria’s thoughts about how we should view the outcomes of the summit. We know some folks are understandably disappointed, so we want to break it down – because there is some good news here, as well as areas where we need to keep pushing. 

This is a longer than usual email, but we hope you take the time to read it –  because your activism is critical to what happens next.

Before we start…what is COP?  

COP is short for the “Conference of Parties,” but essentially it’s the international climate summit hosted by the UN each year. This is the 26th year, which is why this year is COP26.¹ 

Is COP a joke? Is it useless? 

This is an important question. You might have heard some people say COP is a waste of time or just a lot of talk. 

But Alexandria’s experience boils down to this: COP is important even if we are disappointed by it. 

Here’s why COP is important: 

If we write off COP as useless and choose to ignore it – the consequences will be huge. Because the truth is, the pressure from grassroots organizers is working. 

The commitments that came out of COP were much stronger than they would have otherwise been because of the pressure from the outside. 

In the negotiations, Alexandria saw global leaders at the highest levels being very concerned and nervous about public sentiment and opinion. In prior COPs and climate summits, many of these leaders were not as worried because they didn’t think people were watching. 

So what happened at COP? Tell us the good, bad, and the ugly. 

There’s good news and bad news. We’ll start with the bad news. 

The ambition and timelines for action are not good enough – especially if you are under the age of 40 and will live to see the consequences. The commitment to “net zero emissions by 2050” is simply not enough. 

“Net zero” does not mean zero emissions. What it means is that by 2050, we will still be emitting fossil fuels. The “net” theory goes that we will be investing in so much drawdown technology and practices that the amount that we drawdown will be equal to what we’re emitting. 

That is not acceptable if we want to stick to 1.5 degrees of warming. What we are seeing in terms of climate impacts is only just the beginning. It will only get worse. This is just science. 

If the pace of emissions continues, we would reach 4 degrees of warming by 2100. At that point, half of all landmass on Earth will be uninhabitable to human life due to floods, drought, wildfires, sea level rise, etc. 

Governments have had 30 years to address this problem. About half of all emissions on Earth have all been emitted since the first episode of Seinfeld aired. We’re tired of waiting.

Here’s the good news. 

There’s obvious signs the pressure from advocates is working. Much of the news from COP may feel underwhelming, but there is also some that is really promising. Consider the agreement reached by the U.S. and China. Together, these two countries account for 40% of total global emissions - yet, until COP26, we’d never agreed to work together to address climate emissions. Often, the U.S. and China are at odds on global policies. The agreement to work together is a significant step toward taking “concrete actions” to reduce global emissions. 

If governments won’t step up enough, what can we do?

If the world is relying on governments to stop climate change, that is not going to happen. Governments are a critical aspect of solving climate change, but they are not the only ones. 

Grassroots organizing is going to be very important – and not just protesting. There’s other kinds of organizing that we need to engage in to change the systems that are driving this crisis. 

For example, we need to organize new ways of operating in our communities that both address climate and systemic inequities. This can look like creating working co-ops or community solar power, which we saw take off in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. 

These examples are crucial to providing models for how alternative and cooperative models can work, and it takes organizing to build them. 

Naming the positive structures that we want to see – cooperative economies vs competitive, extractive ones – helps visualize the world we are fighting for and what we want. 

Any other key takeaways? The worst powers-that-be are relying and counting on us giving up. But, things are working. There is a commitment. There are many complications and challenges that threaten our transition, but it is worth it to keep going. We must keep going. Just. Don’t. Give. Up.  We can win the world that we know is possible because the world that is possible is already here. It’s just about taking the world we’re fighting for and scaling it up. Thank you for reading this far. If you’d like to chip in to support our movement for climate justice, you can contribute here. With resolve, Team AOC 1 - COP26