Climate Justice Doesn’t Start With Politicians. It Starts In The Streets

Jennifer Morgan, Executive director of Greenpeace International – Photo: Greenpeace

The outcomes of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) continue to be debated across the globe, although a clear consensus has emerged among activists that it was largely a failure. There may be some hope down the road, however, as coal appears to be on its way out and grassroots pressure to transform climate policy is on the upsurge.

Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, attended COP26 and witnessed personally the power of protests in the streets, which, she says, was the real leadership on display in Glasgow. In this exclusive interview with Truthout, Morgan shares what transpired in Glasgow, what mechanisms can be implemented to end fossil fuel use, and how the end of the fossil fuel economy has the potential to challenge capitalism.

C.J. Polychroniou: I want to start by asking for your thoughts on COP26. What did it accomplish, and is there any reason to believe that leaders will make good on the pledges made?

Jennifer Morgan: Glasgow was meant to deliver on firmly closing the gap to 1.5°C and that didn’t happen. The final text was meek, weak and the 1.5°C goal is only just alive, but a signal has been sent that the era of coal is ending. And that matters. While the deal recognizes the need for deep emissions cuts this decade, those commitments have been delayed again until next year.

There was progress on adaptation, with the developed countries finally beginning to respond to the calls of developing countries for funding and resources to cope with rising temperatures. There was a recognition that vulnerable countries are suffering real loss and damage from the climate crisis now, but what was promised was nothing close to what’s needed on the ground, and this issue must be at the top of the agenda for developed countries.

Even though the mention of phasing out coal and fossil fuel subsidies is weak and compromised, its very existence is a breakthrough. The call for emissions reductions of 45 percent by the end of this decade is in line with what we need to do to stay under 1.5°C and brings science firmly into this deal. But what we actually need is for companies and governments to take meaningful and tangible action toward it.

Unfortunately, while some of the worst bits have been removed, the offsets scam still got a boost in Glasgow, and there are still risks that this deal will support a greenwashing scam for the biggest polluters, with loopholes that are too big to tolerate, endangering nature, Indigenous Peoples and the 1.5°C goal itself. The UN Secretary General announced that a group of experts will bring vital scrutiny to offset markets, but much work still needs to be done to stop the greenwashing, cheating and loopholes giving big emitters and corporations a pass.

What COP26 showed was where real leadership is. The only reason we got where we did in Glasgow was because the youth, Indigenous leaders, activists and countries on the climate frontline forced concessions that were grudgingly given. Without them, these climate talks would have flopped completely. Young people who’ve come of age in the climate crisis won’t tolerate many more outcomes like this. We need to urgently mobilize to create irrepressible pressure for world leaders to act.

Those at the forefront of the fight against the climate emergency say we have to stop with the further expansion or exploitation of fossil fuels. Through what policy mechanisms can this be realized, and what is the role of Greenpeace International in helping to make this happen?

The breakup with fossil fuels is not only a necessity but also inevitable. Case in point, the compromise in the Glasgow Climate Pact on phasing out coal and fossil fuel subsidies is definitely not where we want it to be, but we have to acknowledge that it is a small victory in the sense that it’s the first time a call for coal reduction appeared on a COP final text.

But as this is a fundamental systemic change, we need all of the governments to be on board to make sure that this extractive and exploitative business of fossil fuels is well and truly choked off, and we transition as quickly as we can to sustainable sources of energy — in other words, no more money should be allowed for dirty investments.

Between the adoption of the Paris agreement in 2015 and 2019, 33 major global banks collectively poured $1.9 trillion into fossil fuels. The world needs $90 trillion in the next decade to achieve the goals set by the Paris agreement and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Fossil fuel supply still attracts nearly three times more investments and subsidies than the solutions. Just 10 percent of these regressive subsidies could pay for the transition to a clean energy revolution — only 10 percent of the money we are dumping into outdated fossil fuels. This is why the governments must create, then properly and effectively implement policies so that no amount of money — subsidy, funding or bailout should ever reach the fossil fuel companies again.

Fortunately, as more governments are realizing the true gravity of our climate situation, they are taking more action. In East Asia and Southeast Asia, we’ve been running campaigns against state-backed public development banks (PDBs) in China, Japan and South Korea to shift their overseas energy investments, and all three countries have announced [they will] either end or phase out overseas coal investments by the end of the year.

And through our latest Money for Change campaign, we’ve been targeting the European Investment Bank — the biggest public lender still financing fossil gas projects and some of the dirtiest companies in Europe while funding motorway expansion — by denouncing their hypocrisy and greenwashing.

But most importantly, we need to ensure that all policies have just transition at heart, and make sure we’re moving toward a more sustainable economy in a way that’s fair and inclusive for everyone. So, just as we’ve always done, Greenpeace will continue to put unyielding pressure on leaders all around the world to quit putting profit over people and the planet, as there is no money in a dead world.

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On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) IV, November 11, 2021, Goethe-Institut Amsterdam, Performance

On Friendship / (Collateral Damage) IV
How to Explain Hare Hunting to a Dead German Artist
[The usefulness of continuous measurement of the distance between Nostalgia and Melancholia]
(September 2021 – June 2022)
A critical project concerning post-war artist Joseph Beuys

Created by Joseph Sassoon Semah, curator Linda Bouws

Joseph Semah
Beuys and Wolf Vostell – Zwischen Dichtung und Wahrheit

GOETHE-INSTITUT AMSTERDAM,
11 November 2021

Performance

Joseph Sassoon Semah with friends:
Baruch Abraham
Roel Arkesteijn
Masja Austen
Peter Baren
Uzi Heymann (piano)
Bülent Evren
Jom Semah
Yvonne Strang
Els Wijnen

Two postwar German Artists – Wolf Vostell / Joseph Beuys.
As will be clear, both of them became the [symbolic] Victim;
Joseph Beuys a volunteer soldier in the Third Reich transformed himself into the Victim of the Nazi-Era, and with him, West-Germany will cure itself.
On the other hand, Wolf Vostell simply transformed himself into a Jew, i.e. the Victim.

The Christian legend concerning The Wandering Jew [The Eternal Jew] is as old as Christianity.
In the year 1602, a pamphlet in the German language [8 pages] has been published, entitled – “Kurze Beschreibung und Erzählung von einem Juden / mit namen Ahasverus” [A Brief Description and Narration Regarding a Jew / Named Ahasuerus].
This pamphlet is considered to be an influential work on Christian’s thoughts concerning the Jew.
The pamphlet describes a meeting between Paulus von Eitzen and the so-called ‘ The Wandering Jew” who claimed to be punished directly by Jesus – that is to say, that the Jew named Ahasuerus had been doomed by Jesus to wander the rest of his life till the second coming of Christ.
“…………The Lord Christ as he was led past under his cross, had rested against his [the Jew] house for a moment: as this was brought to his [the Jew] attention by several onlookers he had walked up to where he [Jesus] was: and had scolded at him and had told him to clear off/ to go there where he was destined to go. Christ had then fixed his gaze on him and had spoken to him more or less these words:
I want to stand still and rest / but you should go……..”

Camera & editing: Bob Schoo, http://www.n-p-n.info

http://www.josephsassoonsemah.nl/onfriendship4/

© Stichting Metropool Internationale Kunstprojecten 2021

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