The 26th annual climate talks (COP26) are starting this week. These talks have always been less easy for people from developing countries to access. Many people won’t make it to the table at all this year — even more than usual, because of Covid travel restrictions, and UK government’s mishandling of the logistics, and global unequal access to Covid vaccines.
We all know about the terrifying environmental crises that we’re facing today. With countries running out of water, sea levels rising, and the fossil fuel industry compromising the health of many, across the globe – false solutions will not do. We need bold action to prevent our planet from climate wreckage.
Right now – in the midst of unfathomable climate disasters – the fossil fuel industry is on track to have a record-profit year. I have grieved over the climate impacts we have seen for years around the world. But this year, it was different. The climate crisis was knocking on my doorstep as hundreds of wildfires raged across my home country in Turkey. Climate impacts will not simply go away. And we will not back down from the fossil fuel industry that is causing them.
Why are we travelling to Scotland when the pandemic is still going on? Because it’s particularly important for less powerful countries who are most impacted by climate change to band together in person at the climate talks to get their voices heard. All too often these voices get sidelined or silenced in global decision-making spaces – and we cannot let this happen here.
We’re travelling to Glasgow with the mission to bring the people to the front, and make sure the voices of the most impacted people are heard. So many can’t be here in person, but you can sign this petition to put more weight behind these critical demands, wherever you are.
To keep funding fossil fuels means to knowingly bankroll a climate disaster. We need the world’s richest countries like the United States, United Kingdom, and the European Union to step up their climate finance game right now: stop funding fossil fuels, invest in solutions to the climate crisis instead, everywhere in the world.
I said this is a journey because this climate summit won’t magically solve the climate crisis, but pledges made here, and —importantly— people power unleashed here can take a critical step towards ending the fossil fuel era once and for all.
Together, with the pressure on the streets and online, we will make banks and governments start moving at the scale and speed necessary to create the change we need.
