COP25

Guest Blog by Maité Mompó our Spanish Campaign Manager

COP25, the last Summit on Climate organized by United Nations and which finally took place in December 2019, in Madrid (after being previously rejected from both Brazilian and Chilean presidents). The official result is more than disappointing.
The whole city and the COP buildings were full of posters with “Time to act” messages welcoming the so-called “The Ambitious Summit”- as it was supposed that finally ambitious commitments on reduction of CO2 emissions were going to be reached by the countries to settle the insufficient Paris Agreement.

However, the only real winners there were, once more, the corporations (mainly the ones from fossil industry) that imposed their economic benefits over Life. Even if there was a growing group of countries asking for Climate Justice and effective action inside the COP, even if outside the social society mobilized everyday in the same way – topping the rising massive protests along this year, the defenders of the planet were not listened to.
While country representatives spent hours and hours debating around the article 6 of Paris Agreement which establish a “carbon trade scheme” which threatens Indigenous Peoples rights and puts a price on nature, the demands of civil society and scientists on real action to cope with the global climate emergency were held on last place.

The most interesting part of the COP was taking place in the Complutense University where the Social Summit for Climate had been organized by volunteers who did an amazing job and where over 200 organizations held meetings and came together creating bonds between the indigenous peoples and the social movements to work on cooperation strategies to build a new society.

Above RIGHT: Berta Caceres daughter of Laura Zúñiga Cáceres)

The Earth Protectors movement attended the Social Summit and Spanish and Portuguese protectors worked together to get our campaign Stop Ecocide heard everywhere. We started with a presentation-debate on Ecocide on Saturday 7th, twice delivered the message of the vital importance of getting the Ecocide Law UK LINK / ES LINK at international level and shared information about Conscientious Protectors UK LINK / ES LINK to help the ones who take peaceful action for climate, in the daily Social Summit General Assembly at the end of the day.

We also made contacts with other movements different movements of indigenous peoples, environmental activists and NGOs – both local and international – and the young people from Fridays For Future. Earth Protectors attended a protest in front of the Canadian Embassy to support Native American tribes who are opposing tar sands and the huge pipes to take that dirty oil to the United States as the whole thing is one of the largest ecocides of our time – it was impossible to stop tears running down listening to how these projects are affecting their communities.
We also spent some time at the Green Zone of COP25 (the area allowed to social society) delivering information about our campaign and took part in some of the protests there joining Extinction Rebellion people.

What these representatives of governments are doing with their empty words and total lack of action at this crucial moment of dealing with climate is to move forward the biggest of the crimes: the Climate Ecocide which would affect not only to all humanity but also to all the living beings in our planet.

The last COP has been a failure – as the previous 24 were – but there has been something positive: the verification of the fact that a constantly growing part of global society is joining together to stand up and denounce those who are constantly failing the demands of scientist community on the urgency to act.