A year later than planned, COP26 is finally happening. Delegates from the nations of the world, corporate lobbyists, environmental campaigners and faith representatives are arriving in Glasgow.
Joining them are trade unionists who are part of the official International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) delegation. A part of Glasgow’s City Centre around the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre is now fenced off and is, for the next couple of weeks, the territory of the United Nations.
With around 30,000 delegates, it is the biggest such event in Scotland’s history and potentially the most important meeting of world leaders ever held. That is, if they step up to the plate and take the necessary decisions to halt global warming and catastrophic climate change.
This being the 26th COP means that such critical decisions have not been taken 25 times before. So, amidst the excitement around the event there is an understandable anticipation of the likelihood of being disappointed. It isn’t that different from when we Scotland supporters ‘look forward’ to a major football championship. Great if we get there, hope for the best and prepare to be disappointed!
The delegates will be joined by thousands more who are here to be heard, to demonstrate and to demand action. On behalf of UNISON, I have been involved through the COP26 Coalition in helping to organise meetings, seminars, workshops and conferences that will be taking place outside the official COP26 proceedings. Many of these events will be online, allowing a global audience to participate. Details can be found at COP26 Coalition.
On Friday 5 November, Fridays For Future (FFF) Scotland have called for a school student strike, and a march through the city will be led by young people demanding action to save their future. Joining them will be Greta Thunberg, who initiated the school student strikes movement.
For the city, the big event will be on Saturday 6 November, when up to 100,000 will march from Kelvingrove Park in the west of the city to Glasgow Green in the east. Speeches atop a fire engine, provided by the FBU, will start the day of protest and a rally with Greta and a host of other speakers will end it, everyone demanding action on climate change and a just transition for workers, for communities and for the Global South – climate justice.
Similar demonstrations are simultaneously taking place in many cities across the UK.
The key point for UNISON will be on Monday 8 November when Christina McAnea, general secretary, will launch our commissioned research on how public services can and must be de-carbonised. The event will take place in our Glasgow offices from 12 noon to an audience made up of our UNISON Scotland Green Network members, but it will also be live-streamed on Facebook Live and recorded so that all UNISON members will be able to see the launch.
Five ways to take part in COP26
I am lucky to be included in the ITUC delegation, on behalf of UNISON, and so will be in attendance in the Blue Zone where the world leaders will be meeting. The ITUC’s aims going into COP26 are to ensure that:
- Just Transition is recognised and enshrined in the agreements that are reached;
- It means involving workers in plans to transition to the net-zero economy of the future;
- That carbon-reduction measures include assurances on human and labour rights;
- If emission trading systems are agreed, they must include respect for human rights and particularly the rights of people, including indigenous people in the Global South;
- That finance for developing nations is delivered to assist with adaptation to existing climate change and towards their own mitigation methods;
- That progress is made on the loss and damage demands of the Global South, who suffer most from climate change when it is the advanced countries who have been the cause;
- That promises made in Paris to achieve net-zero by 2050 include actions now that will show real progress by 2030.
The reality that all the delegates must recognise is that the world is not on target to achieve the target set in Paris of keeping global temperatures to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. In fact, we are on target for 2.7 degrees before the end of the century, which will guarantee real, catastrophic climate change.
Too many governments, including our own, have so far failed to take the actions needed to avoid the floods, heatwaves, forest fires and water shortages that climate change caused this year. Now is the time for them to take action and, whether inside the COP with the ITUC delegation or outside the COP on the streets, that is what UNISON will be demanding.