COP26 Update from Plant with Purpose: Transportation & Indigenous Voices

1) Travel, tourism, and transportation were the primary focus of Wednesday’s discussions. The shock to the tourism industry presented by COVID-19 may also offer an invitation to reimagine climate friendly norms in the industry. “The travel and tourism sector has a big stake in decarbonization because a destroyed planet serves no one’s purpose,” noted UNEP’s Inger Anderson. 

2) A number of young and indigenous leaders urging climate action have raised concern that the UN Climate Summit and its presiding institutions have sidelined voices from the Global South. “we have seen how continuously activists from the global south, who are speaking up from the most affected communities—their voices are not being platformed. Their voices are not being amplified. Their stories are being erased … This is a problem. We can’t have climate justice if voices from the most affected areas are being left behind,” says Vanessa Nakate, a Ugandan climate activist.

3) Early reactions to COP26 included concerns that little had been done so far to reduce global dependency on fossil fuels or to recognize the disproportionately harmful impact of the industries on the environment. An early draft of an agreement established on Wednesday targeted an end to fossil fuel subsidies and the phase out of coal, the first time the UN has established such a target.