COP 26 The “interim” Final Reckoning

Gillian Mawdsley is an OU Associate Lecturer and Scottish lawyer and has been involved in tutoring ‘Justice in action’ since it started in 2017. Gillian is based in Glasgow and attended COP26 as one of the chosen representatives of the Open University.

A short time has now  elapsed since the tensions surrounding the Glasgow Climate Pact that was agreed on Saturday 13 November. Time will tell if it was either the “BLAH BLAH BLAH” as graphically described by Greta Thunberg or a stepping stone to further and meaningful global progress regarding the climate emergency. The truth is as ever hard to discern as there are so many vested diverse, practical and political interests – and that the truth probably lies somewhere in between the two extremes. It is for those much more expert than me to interpret what the significance of the Pact is. It will be for others to evaluate in the future what the long term effects will be and if indeed, the Pact is a milestone towards a solution.

However, as the UK is the President until COP27 (being held next year in Egypt), there is that opportunity here for us to influence the political agenda and to continue to shape and affect what happens. That too is my immediate personal reaction to my COP26 experience.

It is to see how best to seize that opportunity which I was given to add value for me personally, our students, the lawyers and the legal profession of which I am a member and of course, the wider OU community. You could also add as a citizen of the world. It will too take time for me to consider fully just how that I can and indeed make a difference.

Was COP26 what I expected?

The venue was initially overwhelming, despite my familiarity with the actual SECC location.  I am unsure whether that was affected by the lack of my social interaction over the last 18 months due to the COVID pandemic or the sheer global enormity and significance of the event.  I felt very small – an observer at what is an international crisis.

COP26 comprised two sections – the various pavilions and the formal negotiating process. The range of the events in support of COP26 was truly impressive which allowed me to hear from many. This included those experts on public health at the World Health Organisation, especially the testimony of those representing the indigenous groups and from the science experts, not normally those from whom I hear. The range of policy interests represented was huge including of course the distant encounters with what some now refer to as celebrities such as ex-President Barack Obama.

When I compare my knowledge and understanding of the complexity of the environmental law policy issues now with regard to the naivety with which I approached the setting up of the Law Society of Scotland COP26 and Climate Change Working Group 18 months ago, I am astonished.

Our motivation simply then lay with our  respective policy perspectives. That was to raise awareness of the issues being raised by climate change crisis. As the representative professional body in Scotland, the Law Society of Scotland, we wanted to flag the holding of the COP26 because COP26 was indeed being held in our own jurisdiction. . For us, as the legal profession, it was to consider what our societal role and responsibilities were  going forward. Hence, in December 2020, we had conducted a very simple survey of the legal profession which showed some level of awareness of climate change and COP26. Then it indicated significantly that Covid was for now and climate change was forever.   A message endorsed by my attending the conference.

The high spot of COP26 for me was indeed watching the negotiations in the plenary session on Friday. There were echoes from my government legal experience in participating in various European Working Parties but there, as it was legal policy, I knew and understood the issues. In an audience of over 1500 delegates in a room appropriately named ‘Cairngorm’, I watched the UK President, Mr Alok Sharma and his officials maintain concentration on over 38 countries’ complex interventions. To watch the hour of tense negotiations on Saturday on the TV just prior to the conclusion was a moving and very emotional event (and not just for Mr Sharma).

Coming back to an immediate evaluation of COP26, I feel that any agreement was reached is in itself an achievement – and must be a stepping stone. I fully accept that it was touch and go. I accept too that the deeply held aspiration was not achieved. I reflected then and now on my own profession’s responsibilities and roles at COP26. The lawyers were there in force supporting and advising on the legal implications of the relevant UN treaties, and then spent time in arguing over how significant a word like “urge” may be and what it actually means.  Consider that translated internationally into all the various languages represented round the UN table.

Today, I am still thinking and wondering how this is all going to play out.

However, the telling and most abiding image for me came from the EU delegate, emotively, showing his photo of his grandson. He asked the audience rhetorically what his grandson’s future was going to be. And he lives in the currently comparative safety of the EU. That visual image combined with the spoken testimony from the delegate of the Marshall Islands and from Tuvalu indicating that their homelands are currently under water and that “we are sinking.” 

Then, the message is, perhaps, and following words inspired from our familiar Armistice Day Services are:

 “When you go home [from COP26], tell them that our tomorrow is their today.”(1)

(1)The Armistice Day Service includes ““When you go Home, tell them of us and say, For your Tomorrow, we gave our Today” John Maxwell Edmunds 1916.