‘We are keeping an eye on you:’ Marchere calls for faster climate action
Politics
Tens of thousands of activists held up signs with messages including “Code Red for Humanity”, “Stop major polluters”, “COP26, we are keeping an eye on you” or simply “I’m angry.”
Climate activist Vanessa Nakate speaks at a meeting of COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, on Saturday 6 November 2021. The UN climate summit in Glasgow brings together leaders from around the world, in Scotland’s largest city, to outline their vision for solving the common challenge of global warming. (AP Photo / Aastair Grant) Associated Press
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) – Cheering and marching in time with drums, tens of thousands of climate activists paraded through the streets of the Scottish city hosting the UN climate summit on Saturday, demanding that governments step up measures to reduce the use of global warming. of fossil fuels damaging the planet.
The mood in Glasgow was optimistic despite showers of rain and the crowd was peaceful. Protesters have condemned government leaders around the world for climate talks, which activists say have so far failed to produce the necessary swift action. Climate protests were also held in other cities across Europe, including London, Paris, Dublin, Copenhagen, Zurich and Istanbul.
“We have these talks, but there are no policies that actually support them,” said Daze Aghaji, a London marchist at the Glasgow demonstration, shouting at the constant beating of drums.
“And on top of that, the right people should be in the room,” Aghaji said, reiterating complaints from climate advocates that the Glasgow summit has too severely limited public participation. “How do we expect to make a decent policy when the people who are interested in this are not even present in the room?”
Marchers held signs with messages including “Code Red for Humanity”, “Stop major polluters”, “COP26, we keep an eye on you” or simply “I’m angry.”
Megan McClellan, 24, of Glasgow, said she doubted climate negotiators listened: “This is a very easy thing for them to ignore. They are neat and comfortable” inside the summit conference center.
But her friend Lucette Wood, 30, from Edinburgh disagreed.
“They may not actually do anything about it, but they pretend they do … and they just want to put it off for 20-30 years,” Wood said.
As marchers approached the climate summit, a rainbow curved through the sky.
“Overwhelmingly, the protests are making a difference,” said Elizabeth May, a Canadian MP and 16-time COP participant who attended the meeting. “Most people inside are here in their hearts and sometimes physically.”
Inside the huge UN conference venue, negotiators worked together for the seventh day in a row with negotiations to finalize draft agreements that could be sent to government ministers for political approval next week. Among the issues that nearly 200 countries haggle over in the negotiations is a new commitment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), get countries to revise their efforts more often to increase pressure for deeper cuts and provide more economic support to poor nations to adapt to climate change.
Summit President Alok Sharma told reporters at a news conference that he understood the protesters’ frustration.
“I think we have generally made progress,” Sharma said Saturday. “I think people have been constructive in the negotiating rooms.”
“We are reaching the point where the rubber hits the road where we will have to make, you know, difficult decisions” by government officials, he said. “I do not underestimate, certainly not, the degree of difficulty of the task ahead of us.”
A Democratic and Republican delegation of U.S. senators visited the summit on Saturday. And British actor Idris Elba brought his star power to the UN negotiations and highlighted the importance of helping small farmers cope with global warming. Elba, known for roles such as the HBO series “The Wire” and BBC One’s “Luther”, said he wanted to highlight the disruption of global food chains, as small farmers in particular are affected by irregular seasonal rain, drought and other influences of climate change.
“This conversation about food is something that really needs to be stepped up, and one thing I have is a big mouth,” Elba said, adding that 80% of the food consumed worldwide is produced by small farmers.
Saturday’s march attracted a number of attendees and ages, a day after tens of thousands of young people in the Fridays for Future movement protested outside the conference’s steel fence. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 18, on Friday branded the UN climate talks in Glasgow as “a failure” so far, accusing leaders of deliberately creating loopholes in the rules and giving misleading images of their countries’ actual emissions.
Thunberg’s mix of school strikes, blunt and impatient talk of government apologies and mass demonstrations has galvanized climate protests since 2018, particularly in Europe.
The climate protest movement – and worsening droughts, storms, floods, forest fires and other disasters around the world this year – has brought home many of the accelerating damage from global warming and has kept governments under pressure for stronger and faster action to reduce fossil fuel emissions.
In central London, hundreds of climate protesters marched from the Bank of England to Trafalgar Square. Protester Sue Hampton, 64, said everyone is in danger and that all generations must push for action.
“We can not let the young people do all the work here. We all have to do it together, ”she said.
In Istanbul, climate protesters brought their children to the demonstration on Saturday, emphasizing the impact of global warming on future generations.
“I want my children to live on a beautiful planet in the future,” said Kadriye Basut, 52, in Istanbul.
Danica Kirka in London, Seth Borenstein in Glasgow and Andrew Wilks in Istanbul contributed to this report.
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