COP26: Walkouts, protests against greenwashing, and more highlights from Day Three
Glasgow, UK - Wednesday was protest day at COP26, as it turned out the climate summit is not quite as "inclusive" as it promised it would be.
Greta Thunberg and many climate activists took part in walk-outs and protests the day after world leaders left the conference to get on with doing head-of-state things.
The fact that UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson chose a private jet for the trip back south to London was, in a way, a sign of things to come on the third day.
The agenda was planned to revolve around the task force led by former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, focusing on carbon offset.
It's easy to see why environmental activists aren't fans of this concept. Say you emit two tons of CO2 per year with the energy used to heat your home, but your neighbor switched to a heat-pump with no emissions. Carbon offsets are what you'd pay them to be able to then claim net-zero emissions.
Half an hour into the panel session on the task force's work, Thunberg and other activists from Greenpeace and the Indigenous Environmental Network interrupted the talks. After Thunberg walked out in protest, another activist took the mic.
Teresa Anderson, climate policy coordinator at ActionAid International, used the time to state that carbon offsets "aren't just a tool to greenwash climate inaction" but are "also going to drive devastating land grabs in the Global South."
Many other activists used the day for demonstrations, with some holding a sitting protest outside the offices of SSE, an energy company and sponsor of COP26. A march moved on past as campaigners, surrounded by police officers, refused to move from the entrance to the energy firm.
Protesters continued to call for more concrete action on climate change, and climate justice instead of more greenwashing.
"Most inclusive" COP ever
COP26 was supposed to be the most inclusive UN climate summit to date, but many NGOs and activists were unable to attend most of the summit's events.
ActionAid's Teresa Anderson has already blasted the climate summit for giving environmental NGOs at the conference a grand total of four tickets for observing all negotiations during the first few days of COP26.
She also shared her experiences with being shut out of COP26 events, saying that she had to rely on the compassion of others. When she was unable to get into the event venue due to poor organization at the summit, she accepted help from Sunny, a local phone repair shop owner, to use his store's Wi-Fi so that she could participate.
Other participants in the climate summit have had their own bad experiences with actually participating in the events, such as the confusing logistical nightmare that comes from having a single entrance for the entire event campus.
One entrance is supposed to grant over 20,000 attendees access to the venue, leading to hours in line for many people, and once inside the event's campus, they are still excluded from many events, despite ample sitting room.
There are already signs that delegates from the richest nations and financial institutions still seem focused on getting as much mileage out of fossil fuels as possible, which makes the presence of activists all the more important.
Cover photo: imago/ZUMA Press