COP26: Mobilize for Action
November 4, 2021
U.N. CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE'S FAILURE IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
The first annual U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP1) took place in 1995 to organize a global response to climate change. With every passing year, the warnings from nature grow ever more visceral and the warnings from science ever more urgent. We are now facing climate and ecological breakdown. One million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction, more than ever before in human history.
COP26 kicked off in full force on Monday. Heads of state and protesters alike are gathering in Glasgow for what scientists and many politicians have framed as the “last best hope” for a multilateral agreement to limit average global temperature increases to 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels.
The truth is, nothing on the table in the run-up to COP26 resembled a compassionate and functional response to the crisis. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that in order for global temperatures to avoid breaching 1.5˚C, emissions would need to fall 45% by 2030. But the U.N.'s own analysis shows that the commitments submitted by the nations of the world ahead of the summit would instead amount to a 16% increase in emissions in that time.
In this context, COP26 is all but bound to fail. It's been 26 annual summits, along with decades of denial, inaction, and exponential increases in carbon emissions that have led us to this point. All we’ve seen are pledges. The same non-action pledges since COP1. Without drastic action, COP is complicit in crimes against humanity.
PEOPLE HAVE THE POWER, NOT WORLD LEADERS AND CORPORATIONS
We expect that COP26 will be spun by the world's leaders as a success to an unsuspecting public. They will attempt to promote an atmosphere of optimism and continue to gaslight us. Just this week, as COP26’s first major deal, more than 100 world leaders have promised to end and reverse deforestation by 2030. While broadly welcomed, many conservationists noted that similar zero deforestation pledges have repeatedly been made in the past and have not been met. Here in the United States, President Biden has admitted that climate change is an existential threat, yet approvals for companies to drill for oil and gas on U.S. public lands are on pace this year to reach the highest level since George W. Bush was president. It’s an embarrassment and a disgrace.
Therefore, Extinction Rebellion NYC takes the following position:
Our role is to tell the truth, by exposing the failings and the falsehoods of governments and corporations.
We will force leaders to confront the consequences of their failure, and offer people a meaningful route to change through Citizens’ Assemblies
To achieve this we will continue with mass outreach and mobilization for Rebellion in 2022. This means going back into our communities and building our local groups, getting trained and training others, knocking on doors and talking to people. Because power belongs to the people, not world leaders and corporations.
MOBILIZING FOR ACTION
Rebels everywhere around the world are taking action in their communities as an act of solidarity with those in the Global South during COP26.
We aim to amplify the voices of those on the front lines. We will listen to the voices of those who are already affected by the climate crisis, and those who will be disproportionately affected in the future.
We demand that world leaders compensate these people fairly for the loss and damage they have suffered but not caused.
We demand the government prioritize the environment, ecosystems, and living beings over economic growth.
Starting next Monday, 11/8, we’ll be partnering with groups from around the city to hold nightly evening vigils. Then, Friday 11/12 will kick off a weekend schedule of events for the NYC climate movement to come together in love and rage, and prepare for mass mobilization . Sign up now to get involved.