Rose Kobusinge:
Hi my name is Rose Kobusinge, a climate justice activist from Uganda. As we go to COP26, I’m reminding all global and local leaders that climate change is real, and that climate change affects everyone. But most unfortunately the most vulnerable women, youth, children, indigenous groups, displaced people and marginalized groups suffer the most from the brutal impacts of climate change.It is our leaders task to protect those people, to protect the future lives and livelihoods of the young people and the most vulnerable.
COP26 must be about protecting people and planet from the existential threat of climate change. Climate justice and biodiversity justice must be at the centre of every decision and negotiation in Glasgow. Most importantly, the implementation after COP26 is the one that will determine the kind of leaders that we have.
We shall judge our leaders by the decisions they make in Glasgow, and by the implementation that they practise after COP26. Climate justice is what we need. Social justice is what we need. And there is no Planet B.
Khalil Mohammed:
The recent IPCC report is a Code Red for humanity. A 1.5 degree Celcius rise in temperature is a death knell for the livelihood for millions of communities in Africa. I want to tell the world leaders that we young people, especially from the less developed countries, seek ambitious actions and climate justice. We don’t want empty promises. Show us the money.
As an old Ethiopian proverb goes, “if spiderwebs come together it can tame a lion.” All nations need to come together to solve the climate change problem.
We seek inter-generational justice. Stop stealing our future from us.
Actions speak louder than words. My country, apart from submitting an ambitious NDC*, we planted 9 billion trees through the Green Legacy Initiative which was launched in 2019. We as a less developed country, are taking ambitious action. It is a such shame for developed nations if you don’t trade your ambitions.
And the last thing I want to say is we are watching you. I was representing Ethiopia at the PreCOP26 and we were able to produce a document and presented it to the ministers and world leaders who were at the Ministerial PreCOP. As we said, “nothing about us, without us”. We are coming to COP26 to ensure that the outcomes of the PreCOP are incorporated into the COP26 decisions.
*Nationally determined contributions.
Azeez Abubakar:
My name is Azeez Abubakar and I am from Nigeria. I’m a young climate champion. I have a background in civil engineering. And I’m driven towards supporting the most vulnerable communities impacted by the climate crisis.
I think that world leaders at COP26 should prioritize adaptation, resilience, and loss and damage. As a lot of communities across Africa especially have been impacted the most by the worst impacts of climate change. These communities have contributed the least to causing climate change impacts and suffer the most from it.
So therefore world leaders of developed countries need to ensure that they announce and pledge big commitments to – not just commitments but taking the action needed to ensure that this is a reality, to ensure that the most vulnerable communities are supported during the climate crisis.
This is my vision for COP26 and what I would like world leaders to take, and pledge, at COP26.
Thank you.
Zainab Waheed:
“The COP26 will decide if we will live or let the climate chaos render us to doom.
I would hate to see the policy makers treat this conference as just another talking shop.
I want to see them living up to past promises instead of making new lofty ones.
More importantly, we need them to define accountability measures for themselves to make sure they will actually fulfill their commitments.
I also want to see them securing climate education for every student, finalizing the Paris Agreement rule book, and ensuring that countries from around the world have access to the resources they need to deal with the loss and damages resulting from climate change.”
Yann Gager:
“Planet Earth is our home, and the only planet in the whole universe where life is known. Life has been evolving on this lonely planet for about 3.5 billion years, resulting in a great diversity of forms, colours and behaviours that we know today.
Within 250 years, a tiny fraction of the history of life on Earth, our species, homo sapiens, has massively consumed fossil fuels. This has resulted, in combination with other human activities, in a climate crisis and ecological crisis affecting us and all other living beings.
Dear leaders of the COP26, you have an immense historic responsibility. But you also have great opportunities to make this event a turning point in healing the climate.
After losing decades, we all now have to double down on climate action. We owe it to people from the Global South, we owe it to all the living animals, plants, and other forms of life, some even not described by science yet. And we owe it to future generations.
Dear leaders of COP26, be on the right side of history.”
Zanagee Artis :
“I want to say to the world leaders meeting at COP26 that the time for incremental action is over, and that it is way past time to end government support for fossil fuels. Globally hundreds of billions of dollars are spent on fossil fuel subsidies every year while the planet continues to warm. These projects, subsidized by tax dollars, are threatening ecosystems and disproportionately harming the livelihoods of indigenous peoples and Black and Brown people.
Governments have to the power to end fossil fuel subsidies and instead incentivize renewable energy, fund mass transit and high speed rail, incentivize for electric vehicles. and modernize electricity grid for renewal energy capacity and storage.
We know the science of climate change and the timeline we have left to reach zero emissions. Zero, not net zero, because net zero obscures actual commitments. It is a model that allows companies and governments to continue burning fossil fuels while also claiming that they’ve done their part to reduce emissions because of purchased offsets that may or may not sequester the equivalent emissions at any given time.
Lastly I want to say to listen to indigenous leaders and front-line communities being impacted by this issue every day. Their perspectives must be included in policy solutions for a just transition to occur.”