It came as no surprise that COP26, planned to take place in Glasgow in November with over 26,000 delegates expected to attend, has been postponed. The UN emergency meeting at the beginning of April could really have had only one outcome, as the domino effect of COVID 19 knocks over country after country.
By November, some countries may well be back in business – God willing. But to invite thousands to come together to discuss one of the world’s most pressing issues while the other one still rages on would be foolish to say the least.
Justice and Peace Scotland has been involved in an interfaith initiative to welcome and support delegates. That initiative will obviously be on hold, too, until a date is announced for 2021.
But – and it is a very big but – none of this means that campaigning on the climate emergency stutters to a halt. Why should it? Let’s remember that while many thousands across the world may die as a result of the spread of COVID 19, it is the planet itself that is under threat. It is our common home that will die if we don’t act now. COP26 was to have been – will be – the most important climate conference to date. Now Justice and Peace Scotland, a campaigning organisation with so many committed supporters, aims to keep climate at the top of the political agenda and in everyone’s minds.
We cannot be complacent because the current lockdown has cleaned up our air pollution and cleared our waters with almost miraculous speed.
Whatever our grand intentions while we remain in social isolation, as soon as the starting gun is fired, the fuel-guzzlers will race onto our roads again. Cruise liners will sail the seven seas, polluting the cities they visit and the seas they glide through. Airlines will sardine thousands into their planes and propel them skywards once more.
They say the oil industry is on its knees right now, and we’ve all noticed the drastic drop in petrol prices. But this is an industry with the cunning to get back on its feet to fight another day.
We are also up against the likes of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a
UK-based think tank founded by Nigel Lawson, a self-confessed climate change denier. In February of this year, the foundation said on its website that there could be “astronomical” costs for the UK economy to reach the government’s net-zero target. Surely there will be astronomical costs of a different sort if we don’t reach it?
There are those whose fossil fuel investments pit them against renewable energy. Those who say Sir David Attenborough is wrong about the state of the Arctic.
We say differently. All last year, Justice and Peace Scotland campaigned for climate justice. The speakers at our September 2019 conference offered a host of evidence. Pope Francis has called the climate emergency a “challenge of civilisation”.
COP26 off, so the game’s a bogey? No chance. Let’s fight on and use this time of isolation to make our voices heard on the need for drastic change