"we can’t afford anybody on the sidelines"

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

For me, it was day one. My first impressions focused on the size of the event in the SECC and the SEC Hydro and the number of people – coming after 18 months of lockdown. I noticed the ties and suits – much more formal than I had expected – not out of context for a court setting and indeed, quite a contrast to our casual lockdown days.

I should of course be very familiar with the venue having attended many events including a Fleetwood Mac concert – their guitar instrumental “Albatross” returns me to COP26 themes. Two thirds of albatross seabirds are threatened with extinction, due to the impact of rising sea temperatures, projected to reduce their usual lifespan of 60 years by 5.3% per year according to a 2018 study. There is also the impact of plastics ingestion which is not yet fully understood.

My fleeting glance of ex-President Obama followed as he made his way to give his speech calling for world leaders to “step up”. He directly referenced the leaders of China and Russia who are absent from the COP26 proceedings and extolled everyone to play their part saying “we can’t afford anybody on the sidelines”. He reminded us that “humanity has done hard things before” and emphasised the need to educate in order to “build the broad-based coalitions necessary for bold action”.  He addressed young people advising them to “stay angry” as they are “right to be frustrated” at the pace of the response to the climate emergency. He suggested using the right to vote, lobbying companies, educating others and listening to those who are resistant and “to keep pushing harder and harder, for more and more” action. He was clear that “there is one thing that should transcend our day-to-day politics and normal geopolitics – and that is climate change.”