World leaders met this month at COP26 to discuss new targets for limiting CO2 emissions. These COP meetings are held by the UN annually in the hopes that nations can come together to tackle the climate crisis. COP26 was a success only in the way that it exposed the hopelessness of waiting for our leaders to fix climate change. After scientists had determined that exceeding 1.5 degrees of warming would lead to catastrophic changes to the Earth’s systems, our leaders held a conference that put us on track for 2.4֯C, a disastrous result.  

In Glasgow, we saw weak leadership and weak agreements. In a conference that had the aim of cutting the world’s CO2 emissions in half by 2030 (what scientists now say is necessary for our safety), 500 fossil fuel lobbyists were allowed to attend. This is a greater number than any one country’s delegation, made up of those who profit from extending our reliance on fossil fuels and have been actively undermining our efforts to decarbonise for decades. Meanwhile, indigenous people were shut out, and their voices were marginalised. These groups are often at the forefront of the climate crisis today and are actively resisting environmental breakdown and fossil fuel extraction while living in a way that holds a deep respect for the natural world. 

Leaders agreed to reduce deforestation, methane emissions and fossil fuel use, but the language was heavily watered down. The agreement went from ‘phase out coal and phase out fossil fuel subsidies’ to ‘phase down unabated coal power and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.’ This language is incredibly weak, falling miles short of the ambition we need. A fossil fuel subsidy is any government action, from direct funding to tax breaks and favourable loans, which props up the fossil fuel industry and makes its products cheaper, giving it a leg up over other forms of energy generation. Currently, the fossil fuel industry benefits $11 million a minute from these subsidies, and COP26 has failed to change even this. We need to mobilise trillions of dollars globally to shift as fast as possible to a zero-carbon economy, leaving fossil fuels in the ground.

hase out fossil fuel subsidies to ‘phase down unabated coal power and phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.’. This language is incredibly weak, falling miles short of the ambition we need

There is still no clear plan for how quickly each nation should cut its emissions. But countries did agree to a wider carbon-trading plan – a scheme that allows polluters to offset their emissions by paying someone else to reduce theirs. Carbon offsetting is a very popular solution amongst the BPs, Shells, and airlines of the world because the promise of planting some trees makes carbon-intensive products more palatable for consumers. As Greenpeace points out, however, it really does not work; growing trees is in many ways a very poor substitute for leaving fossil fuels in the ground. These plans have often also led to indigenous people in the Global South being forcibly removed from their land. Carbon trading is good for nothing, a fake solution being used to buy Shell more time to make its obscene profits; it is incredibly disheartening to see such a tactic being used even still, as the time we have to create an equitable solution to the climate crisis ticks ever downwards. 

These plans have often also led to indigenous people in the Global South being forcibly removed from their land

Questions have been asked about the pollution caused by COP26 itself – the emissions produced as leaders travelled by private get were large. There was hypocrisy at COP26, one rule for the rich and another for everyone else, but this extended far beyond some private jets. The private jet concern is a misdirect, a cheap shot that comes quite naturally given the decades of messaging that climate change will be solved by individual action. The truth of the matter is that this summit was the world coming together with the proposed aim to end the threat of climate change and build a safer and more equitable world, and yet it failed, with enormous consequences. Rich nations did not agree to provide reparations to the Global South for the environmental damage caused by past emissions. They watered-down commitments to phase out fossil fuel use, protecting the interests of the fossil fuel industry instead of human lives and ecosystems around the globe. They agreed to a decarbonisation plan that left polluters more or less off the hook while furthering the persecution of indigenous communities. They failed, once again, to act. 

They failed, once again, to act

Some good came out of the agreements at COP26, most notably the commitment to meet next year with stronger targets. But for too long we have been treating global governments as though they are toddlers first learning to walk – we provide endless encouragement and praise at each small step made. The reality is that slowing progress is exactly the aim of the fossil fuel industry, and our leaders have a responsibility to for once act fast and decisively. I am more convinced than ever, after watching this conference unfold, that the only path towards success on climate change is by immense public pressure. Only by mobilising together can we provide the force and ambition needed. There is hope – research shows that just like our planet’s life support systems, our social structures can flip very rapidly in a new direction once a critical mass of public pressure is reached, something George Monbiot has written about brilliantly. The realisation that civil disobedience is our only hope, and that together we have great power, might just make COP26 the success that we needed it to be.

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