A coalition of green and human rights groups are opposing how the climate summit is going on with having the Business going on to save our climate. They have declared this as a warning that net-zero targets won’t help offset future carbon emissions and would condemn the world to catastrophe.
- The group representatives said in the Cop26 summit that greenwashing and “delayism” is the new climate change denial, a brake on the movement for action in recent decades.
- Greenpeace, Amnesty International, ActionAid, and Global Witness, alongside indigenous representatives, called for governments to set “real” zero-carbon emission targets while the Cop26 summit is taking place.
- According to the groups, putting net-zero targets is now common among governments and corporations; hence they haven’t established any policies to cover it. All of this is nothing but smoke and mirrors! They think relying on such solutions won’t have any more significant impact moreover are not even feasible.
- ActionAid International Climate policy coordinator Teresa Anderson said, ‘They are using the veneer of this target to greenwash. There is not enough land on the planet to offset all of this continued pollution. There is no alternative to systemic change to bring emissions down to a real zero.’
- ‘We have to be willing to take a risk, be different, be radical, bring voices into these spaces, and be laughed out of the room the first ten times we say it. Unless we do this, we don’t have a chance. We need to do the math and understand that. Our job is to normalize the radical because nothing less will give us a chance of a livable planet.’
- Amnesty International secretary-general Agnes Callamard said, ‘We, the people, need real action from our government rather than offset schemes that will harm us in the long term and are harming us now.’ She claims that though the UN was founded to operate across borders, the fight against climate change is the perfect representation.
- Sonia Guajajara of indigenous group Articulacao dos Povos Indigenas do Brasil said in her statement that people like her already had realized the failure, specifically at the hands of President Jair Bolonsaro.
- Global Witness campaigns director Seema Joshi warned about climate hazard’s problem through the Paris agreement, and net-zero emission target is companies are refusing to cut emissions these days.
- Global Witness had earlier released reports of their study that fossil fuel companies and lobbyists had more than 500 delegates in Glasgow, a larger body than any nation at the climate conference.
- It is a form of delayism, the modern state of denialism, with a continuation of focus from fossil fuel companies on traditional fuels, pointing to the scale of lobbying at Cop26, according to Seema Joshi.
- Nushrat Chowdhury, Christian Aids’ climate justice adviser from Bangladesh, said, ‘People are losing everything. Sea levels are rising, and people are desperate to adapt to the changing situations. If ever there was a demonstration of the need for a substantial loss and damage mechanism, this is it.’
- Analysis of the UN’s provisional list of attendees shows that 503 delegates at Cop26 are either directly affiliated with fossil fuel companies or with oil, gas, or coal firms. It also suggests countries could see their GDP reduced by a fifth by 2050 on their policies to tackle climate change, which put the world on track for more than 2.9°C of warming.
Campaigners urging to have a proper robust system for dealing with the inevitable loss and damage the changing climate could do to people, land, livelihoods, and infrastructure. Therefore more actions are needed to cut emissions.
