COP26 to the UN – A Climate Activist Reflects

By Susana Hancock

I’m on the train from Glasgow to Geneva, from COP26 to the UN, where I am expected to speak on the deepening climate crisis. My thoughts are organized like a game of 52 Pick-Up.

Was COP26 a chest-beating, self-aggrandizing facade to veil continued planetary rape? How could I understand the pavilions of champagne flutes clinking to futuristic net-zero slogans that hinge on not-yet-invented technology?

I watched as the UK accredited more than 500 oil lobbyists, reaffirmed plans with the Gulf States to increase petroleum trade, axed taxes on domestic flights, and pushed a new coal. And I watched as Jeff Bezos, allegedly enlightened to save the Earth after last summer’s suborbital flight, held a press conference in which he pledged $2 billion over ten years – a fraction of what he paid for that inspiring three-minute joyride. I watched as the US all but admitted 1.5°C was a pipedream while President Biden jetted off to finalize an oil lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico. I watched as I had a panic attack, not unconvinced of my need for an AED.

I’m not ready to deem COP26 a failure.

For the first time, this conference was not a niche political chinwag. Academics and business leaders grimaced together as Tuvaluan Foreign Minister Simon Kofe joined over video standing knee-deep in the rising Pacific. More than 100,000 activists took to the street after Palauan President Surangel Whipps responded to inaction with, “You might as well bomb us.” Declarations on land use finally acknowledge the centrality of nature in this crisis.

However, in an era of cheap talk and missed deadlines, it’s hard not to dismiss the sincerity of closing pledges in which countries agreed to return with stronger plans next year. Until then, its greatest accomplishment is not its outcomes but in highlighting the elitism and dominance of the Global North in a process designed to bring nations together.

We don’t need to steam full throttle toward the iceberg, we can admit we’re off course. Of course, admitting would require action. Real action. Now. We’re beginning to mobilize, but are we ready?

Susana Hancock is an international climate specialist who has been an invited participant at international TED events, UN conferences, and other global fora. As a member of the Steering Committee for Citizens’ Climate Lobby, she urges everyone to call Senator King and ask for a price on carbon. She has previously written for WEN about what she has seen around the world in the fight for climate justice: “Frontlines of the Climate Crisis.”