COP26 continues the legacy of profit over people and planet, but the people will prevail
GLASGOW, Scotland, Nov. 13, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Wealthy governments made promises on finance, but failed to deliver overdue payments and make commitments for future payment. Instead, they wasted two weeks arguing over carbon markets, which will never be a real solution to address the climate crisis. But civil society will not accept inaction, even after the most inaccessible COP ever. If governments do not act, people will hold polluting governments and corporations liable for their climate harms.
Asad Rehman, War on Want: "The wealthiest have said that their coffers are empty, treating climate finance as if it were some loose change to be found down the back of the sofa...the UK has continued to treat critical issues such as loss and damage as if it's an act of charity: burning someone's home and then offering to buy them a door knob."
Hellen Neima, Africa Climate Director, Corporate Accountability: "Sugar-coated poison still kills: carbon markets, with or without mention of human rights, will condemn people and the planet and continue to prop up polluters. Governments are using 'rights' as bait—we must not get hooked."
Aderonke Ige, Associate Director, CAPPA: "COP26 is a well-disguised charade, dominated by 'big boys' in shiny suits and small rooms, concerned only with protecting their image, profits, and power. Meanwhile, systemic oppression, vaccine apartheid, and private negotiations have excluded the victims of these climate crimes! Without the people's voices and real solutions, COP is just an elite marketplace for environmental criminals."
Nathalie Rengifo Alvarez, Latin America Climate Director, Corporate Accountability: "Our future is disappearing in front of our eyes. We know who's responsible, but who will make them pay? Corporations and polluting governments got us into this crisis, but they won't get us out. Only the people will save us. Polluters should be afraid—the UNFCCC may have failed us, but we still have the courts and the streets, and we are millions."
For a holistic analysis of COP26, see The Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice's closing statement. An excerpt:
"Across three decades [of COPs] we have witnessed polluters' great escape, an historic shifting of burden from rich to poor, from those who created these injustices to those upon whom these injustices are forced."
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