Good COP, bad COP

COP26 is now complete and the “Glasgow Climate Pact” has been reached. The COP, or the Conference of the Parties, is the key international conference dealing with climate change.

But with some environmental leaders skipping the climate summit, and others call it a failure, Is it worth COP?

First, there is the bad COP.

Much has already been written about the COP26 struggles. Corporate sponsors have described the conference as “mismanaged. “BIPOC (Blacks, Indigenous People, People of Color) and developing countries have struggled to attend what is an expensive and distant event. COVID-19 presented significant logistical and security challenges, limiting access to negotiations and delegates.

The COP is a technocratic event, and the human cause of climate change and the human suffering that will result can be lost in the minutiae of the negotiations. The graphs and tables do not capture the agony of Lytton, BC, on fire, or the fishermen whose catch is dying out.

There was an overwhelming amount of white noise at the COP. Much of it came from the NGOs and corporations that were there. The Canadian Nuclear Association was at the event, as was the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. In fact, the fossil fuel delegation was the largest in COP.

This white noise distracted from the good work that was being done and the solutions that exist.

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After the end of the first week, the world leaders made their appearances, made some commitments, patted each other on the back, and left.

If he Glasgow Climate Pact It is a step forward, but it is shy. It’s a compromise-filled deal, but with more droughts, floods, and fires, the climate won’t compromise with us.

Subsidies for coal-based energy and fossil fuels are highlighted in the pact, but are surrounded by weasel words that dilute any impact. The broad lines of an international carbon market have taken shape, but there are concerns that lagoons exists.

The promises made at COP26 are not what science demands. We are yet throwing himself off a cliff

An emissions limit is not a production limit. It enables the continued growth of fossil fuel production in Canada. Climate leadership would limit this production.

Canada’s commitment to halt deforestation will not protect Canadian forests and their essential role as a carbon sink. Not all logging is deforestation, which is applied when a forest becomes a different landscape. The felling of old trees and clear felling will continue.

Stopping subsidies for foreign oil projects is not climate leadership when Canadian taxpayers own a pipe. The federal government continues to build the Trans Mountain expansion project despite scientific consensus that the pipeline should not be built.

Milquetoast solutions showcased as leadership by countries causing climate change give the COP a bad name. This political bombast is the epitome of “bad COP”.

But there is also a “good COP”.

Bringing together progressive groups from around the world to share their struggles, solutions and successes is an immeasurable benefit for what is a crisis without borders.

And COP26 presents solutions, many of them led by indigenous people. You just need to find them among the white noise.

The natural world is a huge carbon sponge and an ally in the fight. Protecting and restoring biodiversity and nature is a key place to start. Solutions are being proposed from around the world and at home in Canada.

Speaking with the delegates, there was an urgency for this conference. Negotiations that were initially moving at 10 km / h were accelerated to 100 km / h. Now solutions are being proposed that would never be considered.

COP is a flash point event. For at least two weeks, everyone was green. Even Saudi Arabia pretends to be. Canada claims to be too. There is value in that.

Aside from an environmental catastrophe, nothing draws attention to the climate quite like the COP. There is no larger environmental conference in the world. Environmentalists, governments, and corporations know it.

The climate needs collective solutions. Governments must take advantage to start taking them. Collective action is what makes solutions happen. Marches, elections or moments like the COP are the collective action that drives progress.

COP26 is a catalyst for change. Upon 100,000 people marched through the streets of Glasgow on 6 November. Hundreds of thousands more marched around the world. Scientists are embracing the streets abroad and in Canada to highlight the danger we face.

These gears work. They are essential public pressure, and the COP is the right conference to wrap them up. The climate would not be a political problem without it. It is a perennial election issue now.

COP26 will not save the world. Nor will it solve the climate crisis. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a powerful tool for change. If you look hard enough, you can still find hope.