The eyes of the world are on the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow. We are all looking for signs of hope. But not everyone is looking in the same place.
For us, real hope is not found in the rooms thronged by government negotiators, business leaders and academics.
Hope is found in the streets and activist summits that pop-up around every climate conference, and in the hearts of the courageous people who come from the frontlines of climate change to speak truth to power.
Gaia will be taking action alongside allies from every inhabited continent during the two weeks of COP26. We will call for a food revolution, and an end to the greenwashing of mining. For Indigenous land rights and leadership, and against the violation of Nature’s inherent rights.
Below is a digest of the events you’ll find us at during COP26.
Challenging extractive greenwashing
We will join the Yes to Life, No to Mining Network and allies at the People’s Summit for Climate Justice for a series of events exploring why we can’t mine our way out of the climate crisis and seeking post-extractive solutions to the climate emergency.
YLNM and allies will focus on bringing forward voices from the frontlines of struggles to defend sacred lands and waters from mining, with speakers from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, the Pacific, Europe and North America.
Check out all these online events here.
Advocating seed sovereignty
From 9:30am on the 8th November, Gaia’s Seed Sovereignty Programme Coordinator, Sinéad Fortune will be speaking as part of an event celebrating our active seed sovereignty movement as a positive form of resistance to corporations’ global efforts to force GM crops onto farmers, food systems and us!
Register here for this in-person event
Accompanying our Indigenous Allies
Gaia’s Grace Souza (pictured) is in Glasgow accompanying Indigenous delegates from the Amazon region as they seek to raise their voices in the COP26 space and defend their rainforest home. Our Indigenous friends have an exacting schedule of events, but these are some highlights to check out and tune into:
- Forest women and their fight against climate change – 7th Nov. 9:30am.
- Protecting Mother Earth: Sacred Guardianship & Ecocide Law – 8th Nov. 9:30am – 12:30pm.
- Beyond solutionism within collapses – 9th Nov. 6:30pm
We also strongly suggest you read LAND BACK: There is no solution to the climate crisis without us, a collective statement from the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil on the climate crisis and the critical role Indigenous custodians of lands and waters have to play in bringing about a stable, thriving, climate-safe future.
Championing Rights of Nature
Join our friends from the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature online between 2-4th November for the 5th International Tribunal on the Rights of Nature.
The Tribunal will hear two cases of the violation of Nature’s rights: false solutions to the climate crisis and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, with expert testimony from Indigenous Peoples, scientists and Earth-lawyers.
We Feed the World
On Friday 5th November a portion of Gaia’s global photographic exhibition We Feed the World will go on display at Mcleod Hall in the Pearce Institute, 840-860 Govan Rd, Govan, Glasgow G51 3UU. The exhibition celebrates the smallholder farmers and fisherfolk who produce over 70% of the world’s food. The Glasgow pop up exhibition includes a crofting community of the Isles of Uist by Scottish photographer Sophie Gerrard, an inspiring Slovakian woman farmer by Tina Hillier and Indonesian seed savers by Martin Westlake.
The Pearce Institute will also play host to a number of events throughout the COP. To see the exhibition simply attend one of the events listed on the Center for Human Ecology website or attend the open day on Friday 5th November.