麻豆传媒

MY FIRST few days at the COP26 climate summit felt like an extended metaphor for the state of the planet. I was due to arrive on Sunday, but my train was cancelled because of extreme weather. When I finally got there, chaos reigned and tragedies of the commons were playing out.

The venue in Glasgow, UK, was so overpopulated that accessing sessions was all but impossible. Chairs, tables and wall sockets had sprouted what looked like shanty towns around them as delegates fought to corner scarce resources. Food outlets ran short, bins overflowed and tempers frayed.

But these problems were for the little people. As I searched for my bearings, I was brushed aside by security guards clearing a path for two figures whose body language exuded 鈥淰IP鈥�. It was prime ministers Narendra Modi of India and Boris Johnson of the UK, who strode purposefully through the crowds before quickly disappearing into a gated area out of bounds to the plebs.

Amid the disarray, a palpable sense of progress was emerging. However, as the first week wore on, a familiar sense of gloom and despair began to descend. Pledges are easy. Action isn鈥檛. Brazil backtracked on its deforestation promise. Reports that emissions cuts promised thus far would keep . I grabbed a word with , who speaks on behalf of the . He was less than impressed, pointing out that . The pledges were made in 2015.

Another constituency with little to celebrate is Indigenous peoples. They also bear a disproportionate burden of a problem they did little or nothing to create, but to which they hold powerful solutions. According to the , even though Indigenous peoples make up just 6 per cent of the global population, their lands shelter about 80 per cent of remaining biodiversity. In a sane world, they would be lauded as climate and biodiversity heroes and their advice eagerly sought by the Modis and Johnsons of this world. But all too often they are ignored and marginalised and their lands sacrificed on the altar of the West鈥檚 most destructive industries 鈥� oil and gas, mining, logging and agribusiness.

鈥淐limate change is the latest helping of a grisly gruel of exploitation, colonialism, racism and slavery鈥�

Depressingly, Indigenous peoples were a marginal presence at COP26, in part because of difficulty in complying with strict covid-19 travel rules, but also because their voices aren鈥檛 seen as important. But they were out in force at the . Greta Thunberg was the headline act and she delivered a powerful (if not entirely fair) rebuke to world leaders. Before she took to the stage, activists from Indigenous communities vented their fury and frustration at inaction and injustice, not just at COP26, but in the years, decades and even centuries preceding it.

We Westerners may sometimes feel angry and powerless in the face of climate inaction, but believe me, we can only dip a toe into the bottomless well of anger and powerlessness felt by many Indigenous peoples. To them, climate change is just the latest helping of a grisly gruel of exploitation, colonialism, racism and slavery that the global north has been serving up to them for centuries.

鈥淲e are here today because we know that COP26 won鈥檛 do anything,鈥� Namibian activist . 鈥淭hey want to continue the massacre that they have been responsible for for hundreds of years already. Your world is built on the blood of our people. You people have to be held accountable for the genocide and ecocide you have been causing. You cannot keep on oppressing our people. You cannot keep on coming to our countries claiming that you are bringing development when all you are bringing is devastation.鈥�

Back in the conference hall, a side event called 10 New Insights In Climate Science warned that to be effective, global action must be just. That means the richest 1 per cent cutting their emissions by a factor of 30 so that the poorest can increase theirs by 50 per cent.

I am writing this before the summit wraps up, so don鈥檛 know the final score. But I have little doubt that the justice demanded and deserved by low-income nations and Indigenous peoples won鈥檛 be served. On those terms, COP26 will be a failure. But the fight goes on. 鈥淲e want change,鈥� said Shikongo, to huge cheers. 鈥淲e want justice. We are tired. We will never give up.鈥�