Felicity Garvie, from Fife, got the bus to Glasgow on Nov 6th and was blown away by the size and peaceful, multicultural atmosphere of the demo but also furious and dismayed by five wasted years since Paris COP.
She spoke to Socialists for Independence.
It looks like the world leaders are about to waste more time – the targets for cutting carbon emissions by 2050 mean the planet will heat up to 2.4C. Wrecking the environment, destroying precarious parts of the planet and condemning millions of the world’s poorest.
The poorest in the global south are the biggest losers as climate change destroys their ability to establish even survival-level lives. They are paying the price for the industrial north’s ruthless exploitation of the planet’s fossil fuels.
There has been a pledge of $500bn from COP6, to pay for the terrible consequences of climate change in the poorest developing nations, but Felicity points out that it’s nowhere near enough.
It’s a disgrace that the pitiful US$100bn a year promised in 2009 has not materialised, and although they have now increased this to $500bn, this won’t be until 2025.
Closing down tax havens and making the super-rich pay their fair share would release billions.
Trillions were found to get us through the pandemic, the same can be done for poorer countries where people are dying right now due to climate change.
There were 500 representatives of multi-national coal, gas and oil producers at COP26, do you think they had an influence?
It’s a disgrace that those 500 even got to attend but they achieved their industries goals – coal is to be ‘phased down’ not ‘phased out’ as originally stated, there’s not even a time limit to this and gas and oil aren’t even mentioned.
In future these profiteering, planet-wreckers should be banned.
What about Boris Johnson speech, do you think it was positive?
He could’ve put serious pressure on other big polluting nations with just three policy announcements to COP26:
· To revoke the licence for the Cambo oilfield in the North Sea
· To stop the coal mine in Cumbria going ahead
· To reverse the air fuel duty decrease in the Budget
Instead he chose to grandstand and show-off – another point in favour of Scotland being a fully independent nation. We’d have the power and the will to take on the global corporations who are trashing our children’s future in their greed for unsustainable growth and mega-profits.
Do you think the demo had any effect?
All walks of life, ethnicities, ages and ideologies were there in lashing wind and rain. Everyone felt the power that we had that day, when we march together and take control for ourselves.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the world leaders were paying attention. But over 100,000 in Glasgow and millions across the world made it quite clear what the planet needs, and it’ll happen again and again with bigger and bigger numbers.
We cannot let the rich and powerful destroy everything to maintain their wealth and privilege.
This has been a game-changer – it shows we’re not willing to listen to lazy politicians and profiteering capitalists any longer.