Image sourced from the New York Times.
This article is published under the Opinions section of The Skidmore News.
Since 1995, all 197 countries recognized by the United Nations have been meeting annually at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP) to discuss plans of action pertaining to climate change. After being delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference resumed this past October with greater stakes, public awareness, and expectations than in years past.
The conclusion of this year's COP, however, came with as many empty promises made by politicians as it did redundant articles circulated by the media describing the varying “successes” and failures of the event.
Of the “ambitious” plans agreed upon by world leaders, not one emerged strong enough to keep global warming under a 1.5°C increase. This is a necessary action that governments need to take by 2030 to prevent irreversible climate destruction, as was further agreed upon in the Paris Agreement in 2015. Rather, the most notable of plans reached by November 13th was the Glasgow Climate Pact– a weak plan to “phase down” coal usage, “work towards” reaching carbon neutrality within varying decades, and finance climate plans for developing countries.
Some see these as encouraging and tangible starting points for addressing the climate crisis, as it is now being appropriately labeled by politicians after years of deflection and minimizing the severity of the issue. The US Special Presidential Envoy for the Climate, John Kerry, is quoted saying that a “starting pistol had been fired” for addressing the crisis, unaware of the contradiction between his statement and actions.
Many other politicians shared similar sentiments over the successes of the conference, eagerly retweeting hashtags that spell out “together for our planet” and reporting green-washed “achievements” back to their constituents. The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson claimed that we will “look back on COP26 in Glasgow as the beginning of the end of climate change."
This all seems hypocritical, however, considering the actions of leaders often don’t match their words. President Biden’s recent leasing of 78 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico for offshore fossil fuel drilling is a direct example of this.
To that end, outside of the sphere of political elites in attendance at the conference, people's hesitancy surrounding continued government inaction continues to grow. With the number of “doom articles'' circulating following the conclusion of COP26, describing the failures of the meetings and their implications for our environment, public sentiment is increasingly becoming cynical and even angered over the lack of climate action.
One of the most prominent voices of dissent in reaction to this year's conference was that of climate activist Greta Thunberg, who accurately characterized the event in an address to protesters outside, stating, “Inside COP, there are just politicians and people in power pretending to take our future seriously.” She was one of many voices this year to call out the “greenwashing”– making policy and speeches appear more environmentally beneficial and climate forward than they actually are– done by politicians inside the conference.
The unfortunate reality highlighted, once again, by this year's COP is that we cannot rely on our governments, their theatrical conferences, and various overly optimistic speeches given by political leaders to be the catalyst for change needed to curb the catastrophic climate destruction.
The promises for change that we can depend upon and contribute to, however, are those who have demonstrated they can take tangible action. History has shown us that people, not politicians, governments, or lobbyists, have always been at the forefront of making needed political change. Whether that be the Labor Movement, Civil Rights Movement, Women's Suffrage Movement, or Anti-War Movements- it has always been the voices and small acts of people with stakes in the crises, multiplied by millions, who have truly transformed politics. The climate crisis will be no different. These are people like the mass of 100,000 that protested outside of this year’s conference, defining for the world the urgency of the crisis at hand in the ways global leaders have been unable to.
The results of COP26 and current reporting around climate change are quite disillusioning. That being said, the greater attention this year's conference received and subsequent voices of dissent towards the inaction of our current leaders have been an encouraging sign for the future and changes that are hopefully soon to come.