Young people take COP26 and Glasgow to demand action against climate change

“They have had 26 COPS and decades of blah, blah, blah, and where has this taken us?” says Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. Meanwhile, today it has become known that, with the commitments announced during the Conference, global CO ₂ emissions are on track to grow by 13.7% by 2030 instead of falling by the 45% needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees at the end of the century.

“What do we want? Climate justice. When do we want it? Now!” This is the cry of young people that echoed in central Glasgow on Friday as thousands of protesters took to the streets during the “Youth Day” dedicated to the Climate Conference, COP26.

Although the march was initially called by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement, people of all ages gathered in George Square to demand climate action.

From young children waving their picket signs back and forth, to older adults showing their support for a better future for those who come after, the host city of COP26 witnessed an unprecedented gathering that may only be be overshadowed by another march expected on Saturday.

Welsh citizen Jane Mansfield carried a sign that read: “Code Red for humanity”, a phrase used by the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, to sound the alarm to humanity when the last report was published of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change earlier this year.

“I am very concerned about the world we are leaving to future generations, and what we are doing to the Global South. I live in South West Wales and it is clear that climate change is happening, but we don’t even realize it is happening.” in many other parts of the world and I am scared,” she told UN News.

Latin American indigenous leaders also actively participated in the protest. It was they who led the march and several of them sent a strong message to world leaders: stop extracting resources and leave the carbon in the ground.

“Indigenous people are dying in the river; they are being swept away by the massive floods. Houses are being swept away, schools full of children inside, bridges, our food, our crops, everything is being swept away,” they said on a stage in George Square.

For their part, some activists wore masks of some of the world leaders, such as Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin and Jair Bolsonaro, and represented them as detainees with signs that could read “climate criminals”.

“Although we are a small part of the population, 80% of the biodiversity has been conserved by the native peoples. Our voices, our proposals, must be heard in all international agreements on climate change”, said Abigail Hualinga of the Quechua people of Ecuador.

Ask for more participation

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was the last to appear on stage at the protest, where she criticized world leaders for their continued “blah, blah, blah” after 26 years of climate conferences and questioned the transparency of the commitments they have made. acquired during this COP.

“Leaders are not sitting idly by, but are actively creating loopholes and shaping frameworks to benefit themselves and continue to profit from this destructive system. This is an active choice by leaders to continue exploiting the nature and people and the destruction of current and future living conditions,” he said, calling the meeting a “greenwashing event.

Other members of Fridays for Future spoke to UN News calling for greater participation and better representation of young people in the ongoing negotiations at the Climate Conference.

“Every year the COP has disappointed us, and I don’t think this year will be any different. There is a glimmer of hope, but at the same time we don’t see enough action, we can’t achieve anything with just empty promises,” said a young activist from the Philippines .

“The negotiations are taking place and yet we are here on the street, because we have not been included. The richest come in their private jets and make the decisions. We are here and they will not ignore us. We will make a hole,” added another climate advocate.

The youth statement

The same call was made inside the Blue Zone of the conference, where climate activists from YOUNGO, the UN’s children and youth group on climate change, handed over to the COP presidency and other leaders a statement signed by 40,000 young people demanding change from decision makers.

They also asked Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to support them in getting a paragraph to be included in the final declaration of COP26 that mentions the importance of young people.

“We will send these issues and demands to the delegations, all of them absolutely reasonable and justifiable,” promised Espinosa during a round table with young leaders.

The declaration, which is delivered directly to ministers, also calls for action on climate finance, mobility and transport, right through to wildlife protection conservation.

“Everywhere I have been around the world, I have been impressed by the passion and commitment of young people to climate action. The voices of young people must be heard and reflected in these negotiations here at the COP. The actions and youth scrutiny are key for us to keep 1.5 alive and create a zero emissions future,” said Alok Sharma, President of COP26.

For their part, the United Kingdom and Italy, in collaboration with the United Nations Organization for Science, Education and Culture, and the NGOs Youth4Climate and Mock COP, coordinated a new global action to provide future generations with knowledge and skills needed to create a world without greenhouse gas emissions.

As Ministers of Education and youth met, more than 23 countries presented national commitments on climate education, ranging from the decarbonization of the school sector to the development of school resources.

Despite the commitments, emissions will continue to grow

Meanwhile, today it was learned that, according to the latest update from the UN, with the commitments that have been announced during COP26, global emissions of CO₂ are on track to grow 13.7% by 2030 compared to 2010 instead of falling by the 45% needed to limit warming to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century.

That projection is slightly lower than the 16% by the end of this decade that was prior to new commitments announced by 14 countries: Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Chad, China, Ghana, Iraq, Japan, Nauru , Pakistan, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Uzbekistan.

However, it is still insufficient. It is calculated that in order to limit the increase in the global average temperature to 1.5º, as established by the Paris Agreement, a reduction in CO ₂ emissions of 45% is required in 2030 or a reduction of 25% to limit warming to 2nd.

Source: United Nations