GLASGOW (Dispatches) - Youth activists took over the United Nations COP26 summit in Scotland to protest against what they say is a dangerous lack of action by leaders over climate change.
Two days of demonstrations, including a student march on Friday led by Greta Thunberg, planned to highlight the disconnect between the glacial pace of emissions reductions and the climate emergency already swamping countries across the world, with thousands of people took part.
“We’re expecting lots of people to come and join us in the streets, and not only youth but also adults supporting youth, and adults that want climate action,” activist Isabelle Axelsson, 20, with the youth movement Fridays for Future, which is organizing the march, told Reuters news agency.
Friday’s rally came at the end of the first week of the COP26 talks in Glasgow.
The summit aims to secure enough promises from governments to cut greenhouse gas emissions – mainly from fossil fuels – to keep the rise in the average global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), which scientists say is a tipping point towards far more extreme weather events.
So far, the summit has yielded deals to try to phase out coal over the next three decades, reduce deforestation and curb methane – a far more potent, if short-lived, greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
It has also showcased a jumble of financial pledges, buoying hopes that national commitments to bring down emissions could actually be implemented.
The head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, said on Thursday that emissions cut pledges made so far – if all implemented – could potentially restrict warming to 1.8C (3.2F). But some UN negotiators and non-profit organizations said that assessment was too rosy, and much more work had to be done.
Campaigners also say the world’s biggest carbon emitters need to do much more. The Earth has already warmed by 1.1C (2F) above preindustrial levels.
Current projections based on planned emissions cuts over the next decade are for it to hit 2.7C (4.9F) by the year 2100.