Cop26: Obama criticises China and Russia for ‘dangerous absence of urgency’ – day eight as it happened

Today’s first big event at the People’s Summit is calling out nature based solutions (NBS) – a buzz phrase at Cop26 pushed as the silver bullet to solving the climate crisis and biodiversity crisis with little pain for people in the global north. NBS include the massive forestation commitments, which made headlines at Cop last week, and the expansion of hydroelectric power – both of which activists here say will have devastating impacts on biodiversity, food sovereignty and human rights.

Sophie Grig, from Survival International, said the 30 by 30 pledge – 30% of the planet’s land and oceans to be given protected status by 2030 – will lead to a huge increase in abuses against people in the global south who’ve contributed least to the climate crisis, but have been impacted the most. Grig said: “30 by 30 is the biggest land grab in history and will lead to more forced evictions, rapes and murder of indigenous and vulnerable people who rely on forests and grasslands to survive.”

The panelists from India, Kenya, Germany, Chile and the Klamath & Modoc tribal nation described the 30 x 30 pledge as a false solution, originally proposed by large conservation NGOs and now supported by rich and polluting countries and corporations keen to offset carbon emissions rather than cut them.

Paul Robert Wolf Wilson, a youth activist from the Klamath tribes confederation based in Southern Oregon and Northern California, spoke about the Klamath dam, which has had a devastating impact on salmon runs relied upon by the tribes for thousands of years, and is scheduled for removal in 2023.

“It’s taken more than a hundred years of struggle by my people to remove the Klamath dam and recuperate a river that has sustained my people since time memorial,” he said. “False solutions allow polluters to keep polluting. False solutions are killing us. Carbon market trading programmes are arms of genocide.”

The People’s Summit continues with about 200 virtual and in-person events across the city taking place through until Wednesday.

On Sunday, a counter climate summit organised by a coalition of civil society groups kicked off in Glasgow offering a grassroots alternative to what’s happening inside the Cop26 negotiating rooms.

The People’s Summit for Climate Justice has brought together movements and communities from across the world to amplify voices, ideas and solutions organisers say are largely absent from talks in Glasgow – including the global green new deal, polluters’ liability, indigenous ecological knowledge and the gulf between net zero and real zero emissions.

It’s organised by the Cop26 Coalition, the same folks behind Saturday’s global day of action for climate justice which saw around 200 protests worldwide, including more than 100,000 people take to the streets of Glasgow.

The summit opened on Sunday with a People’s Tribunal in which the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was found guilty of failing to effectively and equitably deal with the climate crisis and declared that the body has breached the UN charter. Activists and experts from across the world including former Cop negotiators, gave testimony over four hours against the tribunal organised by Global Justice Now.

Presenting the verdict, Vijay Prashad, executive director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, said: “We, the jury, find that the UNFCCC has violated the UN Charter … It has forged an intimate partnership with the very corporations that have created the climate crisis. It has refused to listen to those on the frontlines of the crisis, the one billion youth from the 33 high-risk countries, to listen to those indigenous communities and formerly colonised countries who bear the brunt of a crisis that they did not produce.”

Prashad added: “The developed countries pledged to provide $100 billion per year for the climate fund. They have not provided that money, neglecting their own commitments.”