OMNI UN COP26 Glasgow Followup, #1, 11-14/ 11-17,
2021
Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace,
Justice, and Ecology
Omnicenter.org/donate/
CONTENTS NOV.
14-
2014
Corporate
Accountability 11-14
2015
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
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Corporate Accountability
The Liability Road map 11-14-21
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3:49 PM (2 hours ago)
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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.
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Onward,
Patti Lynn
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Executive Director
Corporate Accountability
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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
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Earth Overshoot info@earthovershoot.org via sendinblue.com
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8:51 AM (44 minutes ago)
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HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY TO
ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE?
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THE CATCH-22 OF FOSSIL FUELS
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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.
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8 Billion
Angels Documentary
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Watch the
documentary that creates hope and inspires action that can make a
real difference in our pursuit of global sustainability.
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Climate
Change Poster & Lesson Plan
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Inspire
relevant discussion about the power of individual action in
reducing climate change and humanity’s overall footprint on the
environment.
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Overshoot
Country Map
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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.
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Global Newsletter 58:
The End of The World As We Know It
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Extinction Rebellion via sendgrid.net
11-16-21
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6:49 AM (1 hour ago)
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(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.
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...
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We all did this
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Bert Wander - Avaaz via uark.onmicrosoft.com
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Nov 16, 2021, 11:43 PM (9 hours ago)
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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.
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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.
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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)
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COP26: explained, Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez
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Tue, Nov 16, 7:14 PM (14 hours ago)
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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.
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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
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