Please prove us wrong

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 - 12 November: Sabine Gundel, Associate Lecturer, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

The first plenary of the day was another informal stocktaking meeting –  it was the non-governmental actors, who took the floor to reflect on the progress of the negotiations. International NGO’s, NGO’s representing farmers, women and gender NGOs, trade unions and indigenous people groups highlighted the shortcomings and stumbling blocks to be resolved before concluding COP26.

Main concerns were that draft decisions would neither lead to climate justice nor to 1.5C warming. Followed by more specific issues including enhanced transparency, grievance mechanism, and lack of recognition of rights of indigenous and local communities. Trust in the UNFCCC process is eroding as time passes without clear action.

Business and industry actors stressed the crucial role of corporations’ contributions to sustainable finance mechanism, which was a smooth introduction to the next Global Climate Action high-level plenary, entitled ‘Racing to a better world’ attended by world leaders and others. The ambitious title suggested a near desperation in terms of urgency – ‘race to zero’ and’ race to resilience’ are two initiatives on the list of climate champions, where private sector, financial institutions and governments aim to support a global green energy transformation. It was recognised that turning ambitions into action and listening to the voices of the excluded should be priority. The importance of building trust and catching out ‘greenwashing’ attempts ranks high on the agenda. There is an urgency to close the widening credibility gap between developed and developing countries. Nicola Sturgeon outlined how a small nation like Scotland can lead by example in terms of climate justice ambitions and break the ‘taboo’ of loss and damage finance.

Afterwards activist Vanessa Nakane took the stage and what followed was a powerful outcry of desperation as she described the human suffering around the world induced by climate change. She clearly expressed the distrust of local communities and civil society in the pledges made at the COP26. Her words of ‘please prove us wrong. I beg you, please prove us wrong’ stayed with me for the rest of the day.