Glasgow Climate Protests Amid Backdrop of COP26

Protestors gather in Glasgow during COP26. (Wikimedia Commons)

Fridays for Future, a global climate strike movement organized entirely by youth and inspired by Greta Thunberg’s climate strike in August 2018, led protests on the streets of Glasgow, Scotland, on November 5. Over 25,000 people attended the protests. The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, will take place in Glasgow until November 12. The 25,000 delegates span from 200 countries and include approximately 120 heads of state. COP26 was canceled last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Since the global economy has been returning to its pre-pandemic levels, carbon emissions have steadily climbed, causing concern among the global community and the representatives meeting in Glasgow.

World leaders have been working each day of the conference, agreeing to future action such as making national climate education pledges with net-zero schools and teaching climate at the center of national curriculums. Simultaneously, the world’s biggest banks have been pledging money toward transitioning global economies away from fossil fuel-based production. 

However, young people criticized what they perceive to be a lack of progress at the conference. Activists have said that countries’ COP26 claims to limit deforestation, scale back coal-based power, and fund green initiatives, are shallow and full of loopholes.

The testimonies of over 40,000 young climate leaders have been presented to different ministers, negotiators, and conference officials. Thunberg, at the protest on November 5, called COP26 the most “exclusionary COP ever” and that it was “no longer a climate conference, [but] a global north greenwash festival,” referring to the business marketing strategy of claiming to follow environmentally-friendly policies and practices that a business does not truly follow.

Vanessa Nakate, a Ugandan protestor, said that "historically, Africa is responsible for only 3 percent of global emissions and yet Africans are suffering some of the most brutal impacts fuelled by the climate crisis,” and that “while the global south is on the frontlines of the climate crisis, they're not on the front pages of the world's newspapers.” For many, the effects of climate change are global and felt uniquely in communities around the world.

Michael Mann, Penn State professor and author of The Climate War, posted on Twitter that “activists declaring [COP26 to be] dead on arrival makes fossil fuel executives jump for joy. They want to undermine and discredit the very notion of multilateral climate action,” arguing that strides made in international climate action and collaboration should be celebrated.

Protests in Glasgow, and around the world, are planned to continue for the remainder of the conference.