For two weeks in November, Glasgow, Scotland hosted the largest and most important United Nations climate negotiations session since the Paris Agreement in 2015. Called COP26, the conference brought together official representatives of nearly 200 countries, plus thousands of participants from business, academia, and civil society.
CJRF staff Heather McGray and Hilary Heath attended the COP along with many CJRF grant partners, who took part in a host of activities in and around the negotiations – workshops, panels, films, performances, art exhibits, protests, myriad coffee chats, and many other activities to push decision-makers toward ambitious and equitable climate action. Below we highlight just a few activities and outcomes from the event.
Scotland and CJRF Form Historic ‘Loss and Damage’ Funding Partnership
At COP26, Scotland became the first wealthy country to allocate money explicitly to address some of the gravest injustices that climate change is causing in poor countries. Called ‘loss and damage’ in policy parlance, examples include islands lost to sea level rise, people forced to leave their land, or agricultural communities that dry out to a point where farming becomes impossible. CJRF will partner with the Government of Scotland to deploy its initial commitment of £1 million to this critical area of climate action. CJRF is now looking to contract a program officer to manage work under the partnership.
Funding to address loss and damage is a long-standing sticking point in UN climate negotiations, and Scotland’s decision was framed by observers as the breaking of a taboo. Following the Scottish commitment, a series of others announced loss and damage funding in Glasgow, including the governments of Germany and Wallonia, a philanthropic coalition led by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, and a second GBP 1 million from Scotland.
CJRF Director Heather McGray said, “Scotland has taken a historic step toward confronting major climate injustices that global leaders have largely ignored to date. It is inspiring to see that others have already followed their lead. We hope our work with Scotland will support continued momentum and help generate systemic solutions.”
Listening Session on a “Justice Reset” for Climate Movement
The Climate Justice – Just Transition (CJ-JT) Donor Collaborative hosted a half-day workshop that convened representatives of philanthropy to hear from activists, funders, and officials about efforts to advance climate justice and a just transition globally. The session, Funding the Justice Reset, called on climate philanthropy to shift power and resources into the hands of those on the front lines of historic and systemic injustices. As the key organizer of the event, Collaborative Coordinator Farhana Yamin urged philanthropy to channel $1 billion to climate justice and just transition activities in the Global South before COP27 in 2022. CJRF is a founding member and supporter of the Collaborative.
CJRF Support Enables Activists’ Participation in Global Talks
COP26 faced heavy criticism for excluding the voices of those at the front lines of climate change. Activists decried limited registration slots, onerous visa requirements, and the heavy travel expenses required to participate. Unequal and rapidly-shifting COVID regulations exacerbated all of these, especially for participants from many Global South countries, where vaccines are still not widely available. To help overcome these challenges, CJRF worked with the Climate Emergency Collaboration Group and Impatience Ltd. to rapidly deploy funds in support of active civil society participation during the climate talks. We made travel grants to more than 30 people from over 20 countries, and supported several initiatives that enabled participation, including:
- Major delegations from Indigenous Climate Action, Inuit Circumpolar Council, and La Minga helped ensure Indigenous voices were amplified throughout the two weeks.
- ICCCAD hosted an online Resilience Hub that facilitated virtual participation by activists in South Asia.
- Huairou Commission, IIED, Slum Dwellers International and others promoted the Locally Led Action Principles to negotiators and global donors.
- Activists from around the world built community and found solidarity in a unique climate justice ‘hub’ at Kelburn Castle outside of Glasgow.
- Action for Sustainable Development staged visible representations of activists who were blocked from traveling to Glasgow to attend COP26 (photo below).
