COP26 will kick off next Sunday 31 October, following a one-year delay due to the pandemic. The past weeks have been filled with attention-grabbing demonstrations, including a sit-in outside the Dutch parliament in The Hague and a harbour blockade of Shell’s refinery in Rotterdam. The urgent underlying message from civil society to world leaders remains the same: stop talking, start doing!
Will COP26 bring about the necessary action? Current forecasts are gloomy. The summit is on track to become the least inclusive COP to date. The UK government was recently urged by 1,500 civil society organisations to postpone the summit after it became apparent that most delegates from the Global South could not attend due to a combination of ‘vaccine apartheid’ and the UK’s stumbling COVID-19 response.
But it’s exactly these voices that must be heard, as people in developing countries are currently experiencing the most extreme impacts of the climate crisis. In a cruel twist, the same oil and gas companies that are most responsible plan to be in full attendance at the upcoming COP.
