Are local communities heard at COP26?

COP26 has been bringing together parties from across the world to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Open University has official observer status at COP26 and is learning from the conference to inform the university’s wider sustainability mission and inspire students and staff to take action. Here are some of the conference’s highlights, as told by our Open University observers. 

COP26 Diary - 10 November: Sabine Gundel, Associate Lecturer, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

Day 2 started with free cappuccino from the Race to Resilience Hub followed by a nice pastry handed out by the Qatar Pavilion. Apparently, the Columbian stall has unofficially been rated as having the best coffee – I will put it on my agenda for tomorrow. The reason why I am early in the Pavilion zone is a talk by ICCCD on a women’s project in the Sundarbans.

My strategy for this week is to listen to a mix of high-level presentations and voices from local actors, as these often seem to be more insightful and critical. The Bangladeshi women found their voices on the climate crisis by taking photos of impacts and solutions on smartphones provided to them by the project. They declared that for the first time they saw an opportunity to speak up and make their voices heard. Shouldn’t this be a priority if the global community strives to leave no one behind?

With these thoughts I walked through the endless conference venue to reach zone F where I hoped to listen to a plenary on ‘Keeping 1.5 ºC alive’. Despite arriving nearly one hour early the queue was already gigantic, often a sign of the appearance of some celebrity rather than the quality of the talk ahead. Rumours spread that Nancy Pelosi and congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were potentially among the crowd. I finally made it into the room and listened to eloquent but not very inspiring speeches, warning the attendees of the upmost importance of keeping to 1.5 ºC and the relevance of Indigenous People as custodians of natural resources, which should be further recognised in the UNFCCC processes and financing systems.

The day concluded with a session led by IIED on ‘recognition, rights and finance’ for locally led pathways towards just and equitable resilience, where representatives from indigenous organisations presented shortcomings and solutions for addressing the climate crisis at the local level. Rights-based approaches, protection of and investment in Indigenous People were called for. A good end to a long day.