Whose voices are heard in climate talks?
As the COP 26 wraps up, PBI UK are reflecting on the voices that went unheard, undervalued and underrepresented; as well as those that were overrepresented.
Recent analysis of the list of named attendees by Global Witness, Corporate Accountability, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO), and Glasgow Calls Out Polluters revealed that at least 503 fossil fuel lobbyists, affiliated with some of the world's largest oil and gas giants, were granted access to COP26.
This number, representing delegates from over 100 fossil fuel companies and 30 trade and membership associations, is larger than any single country delegation or the combined delegations from the countries worst affected by climate change in the last two decades - Puerto Rico, Myanmar, Haiti, Philippines, Mozambique, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Pakistan.
This overrepresentation is yet more shocking when considered alongside the underrepresentation of those who are most affected by climate change - Indigenous peoples, land and environmental rights defenders, and communities across the Global South. The 503 fossil fuel delegates dwarfed the UNFCCC’s official Indigenous constituency by around two to one, with thousands of potential attendees unable to attend due to visa issues, a lack of access to Covid vaccines, and unwieldy quarantine restrictions.
The COP26 aimed to “[unite] the world to tackle climate change”, and “accelerate action to tackle the climate crisis through collaboration between governments, businesses and civil society.” But draft outcomes indicate that the decisions made are too little too late, approaching the climate crisis not as a system crisis, but as something that can be solved through superficial changes to business as usual.
By silencing the voices of Indigenous peoples and communities on the sharp end of climate change, the decision making spaces of the COP26 have left out those who rally against business as usual and who propose solutions grounded in community knowledge and in other ways of seeing: those who have seen the impacts of profit-driven climate solutions and interventions.
But by stepping outside of the COP conference rooms and into the surrounding events, we can hear the otherwise silenced. Throughout the COP, civil society has called on leaders to put human rights, and human rights defenders, at the centre. Groups such as the COP26 Coalition, Global Witness, and PBI have provided new spaces and calls to action that amplify Indigenous, frontline and Global South voices and make them impossible to ignore.
In the six years since the signing of the Paris Agreement, at least 1,005 land and environmental rights defenders have been murdered. One in three of those killed were Indigenous people.
The threats against land and environmental human rights defenders from businesses and States have only increased over time. And if we continue down the same road, they will exponentially worsen. More communities will see pollution from mining threatening to seep into their land and water. As land becomes inhospitable and resources more scarce, waves of people will be forced from their land for development projects or monoculture plantations, condemning them to internal displacement and landlessness.
By listening to the experts - defenders and the communities they support - we can and will build a more just, fair, and green world. PBI UK were honoured to bring the voices of environmental rights defenders to the COP26 through a screening of our film ‘In Defence of Our Lands’ at the Glasgow Film Theatre, which you can view below.
Defenders of land rights, culture and natural resources can find themselves facing powerful interests and brutal opposition. Their work is only becoming more vital, and their opposition more brutal.
PBI UK believe that respect for human rights can only truly be achieved when grassroots activists are protected from the violent attacks and inherent risks they face. Those who defend the land, the water, and the ecosystem are at the frontline of environmental protection and must be able to continue their work in secure conditions.
By supporting PBI UK’s work, you are supporting hundreds of land and environmental rights defenders who work tirelessly despite the dangers to achieve environmental and climate justice.
You can help environmental rights defenders by listening to and amplifying their voices. For further concrete actions you can take today, watch PBI’s recent webinar with UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment David R. Boyd and six frontline environmental defenders from Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Mexico and Nicaragua who are accompanied by PBI.
