Women Climate Leaders Aren't Satisfied With COP 26. You Shouldn't Be Either
(vey depressing article from 2021, but bears repeating. not like things have gotten any better)
Women Climate Leaders Aren’t Satisfied With COP 26. You Shouldn’t Be Either
11/15/2021 by Leela de Paula
“Promises will not stop the suffering of people. Pledges will not stop the planet from warming.”
—Vanessa Nakate, a climate activist from Uganda
women-climate-cop-26-feminists-native-indigenous-womenFridays 4 Future protest inside COP 25 in 2019. (John Englart / Flickr)
The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP 26, began on October 31 in Glasgow, Scotland, and came to an end on November 12. During the conference, leaders from around the world pledged action, ranging from promises of billion-dollar-plus investments in climate change initiatives to setting ambitious goals to cut back on fossil fuel emissions. But many activists are frustrated at the general emptiness of such promises as governments continue to prioritize the economy over the environment, and the voices of the privileged over the marginalized, who disproportionately shoulder the burden of climate change. Indeed, it is ironic that the global organization founded on colonialism, and its leaders—almost all wealthy, white men—claim to contribute to a more just, equitable and sustainable world, while poor Black, Indigenous and women of color do the bulk of the real work to combat climate change.
Women are at the forefront of local, national and global environmental movements as both the greatest victims and greatest fighters of climate change. Yet men continue to make most of the decisions to combat the destruction that they themselves designed. Meanwhile, women advocating for the environment are harassed, assaulted, and murdered globally.
. . . .
Below are a few multi-generational female environmental activists’ reactions to the U.N. Climate Change Conference, their thoughts on what needs to be done to combat environmental destruction, and their idea of real, sustainable global change.
Sonia Guajajara: “This Is Environmental Genocide”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CWHOVlzKUHV/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=1b51b5dc-a22e-46dc-8bcc-a4285fb315a3
. . . . .
Vanessa Nakate: “We Are Drowning in Promises”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CVlRyCIt7fN/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=a288240e-4b8b-4c17-926d-0f901f3f7862
. . . . .
Greta Thunberg: “‘Small Steps in the Right Direction’ Equals Losing”
. . . .
During the first week of climate discussions, Thunberg joined a youth protest outside the summit and led a choosy chant as a clear indication of how the younger generations felt about the leaders who continue to talk circles around action without enacting any real change: “You can shove your climate crisis up your arse!” Fridays For Future, an international student movement founded by Thunberg, released a statement on the last day of the conference calling it “the most exclusive ever,” noting that over 500 fossil fuel lobbyists were welcomed at the event while frontline activists struggled to have their voices heard. It read:
While negotiators from the most vulnerable nations have fought hard to change the course of the negotiations, they are now asked to sign away the lives and land of their people at the behest of wealthy global north nations.
Thunberg set the record straight of what was needed to truly combat the issue at hand in a final response to the COP 26: “Unless we achieve immediate, drastic, unprecedented, annual emission cuts at the source then that means we’re failing when it comes to this climate crisis. ‘Small steps in the right direction,’ ‘making some progress’ or ‘winning slowly’ equals losing.”
https://msmagazine.com/2021/11/15/women-climate-cop-26-feminists-native-indigenous-women/