COP 26 - Final reckoning

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 - 17 November: Gillian Mawdsley, Associate Lecturer in the Faculty of Business and Law.

Time will tell if the Glasgow Climate Pact was as, Greta Thunberg put it, “BLAH BLAH BLAH” or a stepping-stone to meaningful global progress.

The range of events were impressive, and the breadth of policy interests was huge. I heard from experts at WHO as well as representatives of indigenous groups and science experts. However, my COP26 highlight was watching the negotiations in the plenary on Friday; I watched Alok Sharma and his officials maintain concentration on over 38 complex countries’ interventions.

All this led me to reflect on my own profession’s responsibilities and roles at COP26. The lawyers were there supporting and advising on the legal implications of the relevant UN treaties; arguing over how significant a word like “urge” may be, what it means, and how that translates internationally into all the various languages represented round the UN table.

The telling and abiding image for me came from the EU delegate emotively showing a photo of his grandson. He asked what his grandson’s future was going to be. He lives in the currently comparative safety of the EU. That visual image combined with the spoken testimonies from the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu stating “we are sinking” was striking. In words inspired from our Armistice Day Service “When you go home, tell them that our tomorrow is their today *.”

*The Armistice Day Service includes ““When you go Home, tell them of us and say, For your Tomorrow, we gave our Today” John Maxwell Edmunds 1916.