by Sena Wazer

The first panel I attended at COP26 was focused on Climate Refugees. Honestly, it’s ironic when you consider that COP26 has a severe lack of focus on climate refugees included in the actual platform and agenda, even though more and more people are being displaced and will continue to be displaced moving forward. However, it was also one of the best panels that I attended during my time at COP26 because of a speaker named Emtithat Mamhoud. She is a Sudanese-American poet whose family fled from Sudan as refugees during the Darfur genocide, moving to the United States in 1998.

She spoke about the need to listen to climate refugees and ensure that they are present and included in the spaces where decisions are made. She expressed frustration that resonated deeply with me regarding the lack of meaningful equitable climate action that generally comes out of these COP meetings. She shared a new poem, named, Di Baladna – Our Land in English – which starts off with the following quote:

“If you are reading this, I forgive you/You have grown far from the heart of me my child/have lost the familiar love we held for one another in your first years of life.”

Hearing her speak this poem gave me chills.

This experience was very powerful, and also very different from many of the events I attended. It was different because Mahmoud spoke from a personal perspective, being a refugee who has been affected by environmental issues herself. While many events – although certainly not all – felt impersonal, this one struck a deep chord with me and others in the room. It is indicative, I believe, of what effective environmental communication can do. Specifically, it helps one to understand a different perspective and more effectively convey an environmental issue in a way that feels personal and real. Through listening to people like Emtithat, I hope that bolder and more equitable climate action is possible. I believe it is, and if we are able to achieve this then I think COP could become a much more just and equitable place.

by Musa Hussain 

Attending the United Nations climate summit called COP26 was an incredible experience in so many different ways. It was a privilege to be able to listen to, converse with, and learn from so many different climate justice activists and leaders from around the world. While attending the official COP was an amazing experience, what I found just as rewarding was spending time with the more grassroots centered groups and activists who converged at venues around the city.

These discussions and panels, organized by The People’s Summit for Climate Justice focused on how climate injustice intersects with other forms of oppression from racism to capitalism to imperialism. By highlighting the voices of indigenous people and others who have been marginalized, events at the People’s Summit helped me understand the ways in which the effects of climate change are disproportionately felt by those who actually contribute the least to it. Further, listening to speakers at the People’s Summit made me realize that what works as a solution to climate change for one group might not work for another group. While climate change is felt all over the world, its effects differ from region to region, from country to country, and each community has a different understanding of the best way to mitigate these effects.

For example, at a panel on eco-socialism, a Mexican activist pointed out that his solution of nationalizing the fossil fuel industry as an initial step to phasing it out would not, and does not work in countries such as Mexico where the federal government actually uses their control of the oil industry to enrich corrupt political actors, and to continue releasing emissions. I also found the more social, informal, and discussion-based events held by the People’s Summit to be fantastic.

While attending panels and lectures at the official conference was an absolute honor, conversing and grabbing a drink with some fellow climate activists we met through events at the People’s Summit was especially cool. For me, a hugely important part of the climate movement is learning from your fellow activists and building solidarity across the world, and this is something that can best be done through simply sitting down and talking with someone who might live across the world, but shares the same fight against climate change.

Overall, being part of both COP and the People’s Summit was an absolute honor, and the experience will allow me to become a better climate activist at UConn and in the global fight against climate change. By observing these two sides of the climate movement and their contrasting perspectives and strategies, I was able to understand that the fight against climate change is one that must be fought on many fronts, with a variety of tactics.

by Lindsay Alfano, J.D. Candidate 2022

“The people making the decisions are not the ones who need the changes most on the ground.” The first small lecture I attended while at COP26 truly defined and transformed my experience moving forward. Emitithal Mahmoud, a Sudanese American slam poet and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador, emphasized that voices from communities affected need to be heard especially when discussing sustainable goals and policy.

Following a probing question, she further stated that students are leaders and have the power to change the current political narrative. Everyone left that conversation asking themselves, “What am I doing now to make a difference?”

As a third-year law student, I was hoping that attending COP26 would expose me further to environmental law and strengthen my impact within this field. Particularly, I wanted exposure to individuals and the varying cultural perspectives they bring climate change. Ultimately, I gained great insight while at COP26 and was impactfully enlightened to the necessity of environmental justice, the role I play in amplifying and including individuals in conversations, and the impact of the legal field and necessity for policy reform.

Following the initial lecture, I focused on how the conference was working to include various individuals and advocate for environmental justice in COP26. The conference seemed to focus heavily on the involvement of and collaboration with women, youth, and indigenous people. On gender day, Fatou Jeng, an activist and founder of Clean Earth Gambia, brought to light the impact of climate change on agriculture in Gambia, a sector that women dominate, and how women in Gambia are disproportionately affected by climate change-based displacement. She found that women and girls should be at the center of the conversation. Another speaker stressed advocating for children because their future is dismal and argued that policy focused on the need for resiliency include children in the narrative and that the narrative reflect the severity of the situation. This same exposure was witnessed in a photograph taken by Sebastião Salgado capturing a young girl that lives in Kampo do Ruio Amônea Indigenous Territory, State of Acre. The photo seeks to show individual children who are impacted by illegal logging, gold mining, etc. Overall, the narrative of the conference seemed to encourage and demand amplifying a range of voices.

The attempt to integrate a range of voices was reflected in lectures and in a negotiation that worked to adjust law and policy. First, a panel of judges supported the necessity of collaborating with jurisdictions around the globe, continuing education on the effects of climate change, and protecting the human right to an environment that is not harmful. This discussion brought together several voices and the judges stressed the need for change. Second, in the negotiations to revise the Climate Tech Center and Network, there was a goal to add three seats to the board and provide a voice for three NGOs that focused on youth, women, and indigenous people. From a collaborative perspective, each of the countries seemed to be more than willing to work together despite the various backgrounds in the room. While appearing to support the amplification of these voices on the surface, there seemed to be push back from a few of the countries. This pushback did not accurately reflect the energy of the rest of the conference that was striving for inclusion, nor did it reflect the other countries that stressed the importance of these added seats at the table. In the end, the positions were included, but only the future can tell whether these three NGOs will actually have any power to influence and have a say in the decisions of the board.

To reflect back on the question from the first conference that I attended, I bring in a quote from the speaker at a talk led by the EPA who stated, “Now is the time to be an advocate and find any way to use your voice.” I am leaving the conference motivated to make a difference and advocate for those voices and stories that are often overlooked and undermined. As it has been stated, climate change is a human rights issue, and unless we begin to provide a platform for individuals to share their stories and a seat at the table for those left out of decision-making, we will never see true progress.

by Lily Forand

Before COP26, I had this idea that the only way to really reverse or halt the effects of climate change was through big government regulations. I’m a polisci major, whose background on the subject of climate justice is somewhat lacking compared to the rest of my peers on this trip. Big corporations and modern capitalism created this mess, and I assumed that government entities should be the ones to come in and clean it up. And to a certain degree this is very true; if congresspeople are ever released from the tight grip of monied interests, we could make significant strides towards engineering a greener, cleaner world.

My previously held notions of what a solution would look like were instead challenged by my misconceptions about what solutions beyond corporate regulation should be. While the government has power to stop companies from polluting and maintaining high methane emissions (among other things), I have come to believe that we need to focus on community-based solutions, created by the people that will be affected by them. As a panelist for the women and climate justice event I attended said, “we need empowerment, not solutions.” Solving the climate crisis isn’t about sweeping, one-size fits all measures taken by politicians who often lack grounded understanding of their constituencies. It is about giving people in those communities – women, indigenous people, young people, etc. – the resources and funds to create green communities. Of course, we still need to regulate big corporations and major polluters. Panelists spoke about community generated energy sources to replace fossil fuels, and I learned about new technology to grow fresh produce in multi-layered greenhouses in communities that wouldn’t otherwise have access to it. I heard from activists from all over who shared different perspectives on how best to tackle this challenge, all based on the specific needs of their communities.

I think before COP, I overestimated the ability that the U.S. Government has to solve the climate crisis. I now believe that we need lawmakers’ power and resources to be placed in the hands of the people if we want a climate solution that truly reflects the diversity of need in this country.