Thousands demand immediate action against climate change in Glasgow

Tens of thousands of activists marched on Saturday through the Scottish city hosting the climate summit of the HIM-HER-IT, physically close to the world’s negotiators inside, but separated by a great gulf of expectations, with frustrated protesters increasingly despising the talks climatic and demand immediate measures not only to slow down the global warming.

Despite the anger and flurries of rain, the mood at the Glasgow protest was lively. Similar protests took place in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Dublin, Copenhagen, Zurich and Istanbul.

Protesters blamed heads of government for their inability to quickly arrange necessary action, and some reiterated activist Greta Thunberg’s view on Friday that the talks were nothing more than “blah-blah-blah.”

“We have these talks, but there are no policies to really support them,” said Daze Aghaji, a participant from London who was yelling over the constant pounding of drums.

“On top of that, real people should be in the room,” said Aghaji, a reference to complaints of extremely limited public participation at the Glasgow summit. “How are we expected to develop decent policies when the stakeholders in this are not even present in the room?”

The protesters held signs with messages such as: “Code Red for Humanity”, “Stop the Big Polluters”, “COP26, we are watching you” or simply “I am upset”. One sign had the question: “If not you, then who? If not now, then when?

Megan McClellan, 24, of Glasgow, said she doubted the negotiators were listening.

“This is very easy for them to ignore. They are fine and comfortable ”inside the conference center, he said, which is surrounded by steel fences.

But her friend, Lucette Wood, 30, from Edinburgh, disagreed.

“They probably won’t do anything about it, but they pretend they do … and they just put it off for 20 or 30 years,” Wood said.

Whether as a tactic to increase pressure against governments or as a rejection of negotiations, Thunberg’s disparaging qualification of the two-week summit – one week to go – had repercussions both on and off the site.

Rulers and negotiators say they are as aware as protesters of the urgency of their task, but time is running out to control pollution caused by fossil fuels before Earth faces much higher levels of warming.

Jamila Khatoon from Pakistan carried a sign in Glasgow regarding three glaciers in her region that could disappear due to climate change.

“The glaciers are melting,” Khatoon noted. Villages are drowning. Nobody does anything ”.

Elaine Knox, 69, and William Oliphant, 60, both from Glasgow, said they participated in the march in support of the next generations.

“I’m going to die before the worst happens,” Knox said. “It is to the young that we are leaving a horrible, horrible world.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose country is hosting the talks, defended the progress of governments in committing to reduce emissions and provide financing against climate change, while acknowledging the public demand that more needs to be done. .

In the huge headquarters of the United Nations conference, negotiators continued to discuss the draft agreements for the seventh day in a row so that they can be presented to government ministers for political approval next week.

Among the points under discussion were a new commitment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), encourage countries to review their efforts more frequently to increase pressure for larger reductions, and increase financial assistance to poor nations to adapt to climate change.