As we run out of time to save the planet, COP26 ends in ‘utter betrayal’

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Following two weeks of negotiations, the UN climate summit COP26 concluded with the Glasgow Climate Pact. The supposed aim of this pact, signed by 197 countries, is to keep hopes alive of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels by the year 2100.

As reported by the Guardian, the pact has been labelled “imperfect”. And prime minister Boris Johnson said “there is still a huge amount more to do in the coming years”. The UK, which hosted COP26, says the pact keeps alive hopes that we’ll avoid the worst of global warming. However, environmental activist Greta Thunberg was having none of it:

Read on...

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“Utter betrayal”

As the leaders were putting the final touches to their pact, Thunberg predicted a spin on the outcome:

Then came a warning from environmental journalist George Monbiot:

Earlier Monbiot had been even more damning. He called the pact a “total fiasco” and a:

pathetic limp rag of a document. Demonstrating that [COP26 leaders] are not here to protect life on Earth but to protect the fossil fuel industry from challenge:

Following the announcement of the pact, the COP26 Coalition – an environmental and civil society organisation – said:

This agreement is an utter betrayal of the people. It is hollow words on the climate emergency from the richest countries, with an utter disregard of science and justice. The UK government greenwash and PR have spun us off course

And that:

It’s immoral for the rich to sit there talking about their future children and grandchildren, when the children of the south are suffering now. This Cop has failed to keep 1.5C alive, and set us on a pathway to 2.5C. All while claiming to act as they set the planet on fire

Some of the pact’s takeaways

The pact asks countries to “strengthen” their climate plans by the end of 2022 and to reduce their use of coal and fossil fuel subsidies. It agrees to ‘phase down’ unabated coal power and to phase out “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies”. But there’s some confusion over the definition of the words “unabated” and “inefficient”.

There was also push back on the necessary financial side. Because countries from the Global South wanted financial assistance to help them deal with the harm created by the climate crisis. But the US and EU resisted this, so it wasn’t included in the final deal.

And as for the all important goal of limiting global temperatures to 1.5 degrees, Simon Lewis and Mark Maslin wrote in the Conversation:

Announcements at COP26, including new pledges to cut emissions this decade, by some key countries, have reduced this to a best estimate of 2.4°C.

And that:

Carbon markets could throw a potential lifeline to the fossil fuel industry, allowing them to claim “carbon offsets” and carry on business as (nearly) usual.

Thunberg tweeted:

A chorus of “blah blah blah”

Other people and campaign groups took to social media to echo that sentiment. Extinction Rebellion slammed COP26’s claim that it had “kept 1.5 degrees alive”:

Podcaster Alex Andreou was in agreement:

And this person blamed our capitalist system:

Surprised?

The Canary attended a number of days of the two-week COP26 and gave it extensive coverage. Reflected in that coverage were the numerous ways in which this summit was failing both planet and people. So it comes as little surprise that the final agreement showed COP26 really was nothing more than a “failure and PR event”, as Thunberg described it.

What should also come as no surprise is that the people who really care about our planet will fight on. Because we’re fucked if we don’t, and we’ve got precious little time.

Featured image via – Pixabay – geralt

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  • Show Comments
    1. ……..and WE Talk and WE Talk!
      Children, Women, Elderly, Innocent Civilians lie in bloody pieces in the dust of The Middle East, Africa, West Papua, etc, etc, and WE Talk and WE Talk!
      The UN Warns but DOES NOTHING!
      The ICC Calls on War Criminals, they say Fuck Off, we’re busy creating War Crimes! And WE Talk and WE Talk!
      The Elites/Establishment will do absolutely nothing, the only way to force them to hear The PEOPLE is a Revolution! Not a Revolution of Crippling Bloodshed a Revolution of Crippling Their Lifeline, MONEY!
      WE The PEOPLE are the fools who make them Rich and make them Powerful and in a Position to force their ideas on Humanity!
      Bezos has to say about the possible future. “Humanity will move most industry into space and allow only a select few to remain on our planet, which will be turned into a natural resort, according to self-funded space explorer Jeff Bezos” So basically speaking send ‘The Peasant Scum’ into space to Piss in drinks bottles for lack of breaks, making and packaging Their Tat for the other Peasants to buy and spend ALL their Pittance on, so that the Hoity Toity, who Fucked Up our Planet in the First Place can own Luxury Resorts!
      Bezos, here, it is not about the future for me what he said is Supremacist and telling of the Power the Elites/Establishment are likely to hold over The PEOPLE in the near future if we continue to JUST Talk and Talk!
      The Climate, Arms, etc Activists are absolute heros but are we still achieving what we need, or are they making us out to be Violent Thugs?
      Do we need to rethinking Protests? Perhaps use tech to project film/images of the impacts of the Elites/Establishment’s Wars, Earth Destruction etc, etc, with Less Activists we could reach the entire nation with the Shocking TRUTH!
      Simple but effective Revolutionary steps everyone can start RIGHT NOW are:
      NEED over WANT Revolution, Only own what you REALLY NEED! NO MORE WANTS!
      Own it until it dies and can’t be fixed not when Apple/Samsung/Google tells you need the latest!
      Buy the best quality for the lowest price not The Name/Brand!
      etc…
      Boycott ALL MSM, unplug that Virgin/Talk Talk/Sky Box send it back, you only need internet! Never Ever Buy a Paper or Magazine Again! Everything is available on the internet free and even better Quality and TRUTH!
      At least turn every device off when not in use, as Snowden once said ‘the only safe device is turned off, unplugged, battery and Sim Card out, but even then it’s Possibly still not Safe.’ Big Data is IV Manufactured Consent, only by removing ourselves from their conveyer will we be free.
      Boycott SUPERMARKET CHAINS NOT JUST CONTRABAND PRODUCTS! If you spot an “Israeli” product Manufactured off the Blood and Suffering of Palestinians in Palestine, etc, etc, etc, don’t just boycott that one product, walk out, write to the HQ and tell them untill they remove ALL such and other products you will boycott the chain! One or two letters will receive no notice but hundreds daily and a visible drop in the Chain Renenue WILL BE HEARD AND UNDERSTOOD!
      However then we must make sacrifices and inconvenience ourselves by shopping at locations less convenient etc. We can’t break the Boycott for those “ONLY THIS ONCES”!
      We The PEOPLE, MUST UNITE and forget about ALL the dividing lines that the Elites/Establishment put between us, it’s the ONLY way!
      The Many vs The Few!
      They NEED us FAR MORE than We NEED/WANT THEM!

      1. Exactly, show them we can live without their stupid crap. Stop Consuming everything they push onto us.. Boycott Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Google…Recycle everything you can..
        We can win this. If we try.
        No to more climate jabs!

        1. We just have to drop our shit and Unite as The PEOPLE, we are split into every direction imaginable, by MSM Zombification. Just live and let live FFS! Remember that cartoon ‘You don’t need to fight these people. Just tell the torch people that the pitchfork people want to take their torches’? Well that is us The PEOPLE!
          Talk about climate jabs, Israel did a Major War Games Drill on the NEW “Omega” Killer CV Variant that doesn’t exist yet and articles, oddly got the additional “fictional” added later, interring. Two days later one French report on a new Vaccine Resistant Variant and nothing more about it Poofffff and it’s gone!
          I guess if nothing else we could laugh ourselves into that good night, for the horrificly dark black comedy that life has become! Can Humans ever Unite or will the Bezos Drones expell us from our own planet, the ones they couldn’t kill with their designer viruses anyway!?
          How did all this happen under our noses!? It’s like we watched an alternate reality and suddenly they dropped the big screen and this thing called Earth, behind it, was this wasteland of death and destruction, half expecting The Judges to come wizzing by! Even the Police/Military are looking more and more like 2000 AD Judges!

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