Sustaining All Life at COP26
For two years, Janet Kabue (Area Reference Person for Nairobi, Kenya) and I, together with a strong organizing team, prepared the Sustaining All Life/United to End Racism (SAL/UER) delegation for attending the activist gathering outside of COP26 [the annual United Nations climate conference] in 2020.
It was challenging from the beginning. The 2020 COP was postponed because of COVID, so we put together online workshops. One of the good things from this was that we ended up with a much more international COP26 delegation, particularly from Africa and Latin America. Also, relationships were built, and teams were formed, that continued into 2021.
In 2021 there were many moving pieces [many things were changing]. We had to stay flexible about what to do next. We had to prepare for the possibility of both in-person and online events. We had to organize to get people to Glasgow (Scotland) while at the same time preparing for mostly online workshops.
Throughout 2021 we held online workshops at a variety of climate conferences. We hit “bumps,” discharged, and got stronger with each presentation.
I did not go to Glasgow in person. Instead I played a long-distance support role from Seattle (Washington, USA). I was involved in all the preparations leading up to and during the COP. (I did this on Glasgow time, while in Seattle!)
Here are some of my highlights:
- Overall, we did well. Good things happened on many fronts.
- I worked with Janet for more than two years and learned a lot. She is smart, warm, and loving and has a connected way of being. I learned so much from her about being an ally—an ally to her and to the other Africans in our delegation. Racism, other oppressions, and colonization are harsh.
- I had the opportunity to be close to our delegates as they went through the visa application process and the United Kingdom (UK) COVID protocols, which changed frequently. I could see the racism and the effects of colonization in the United Nations and UK government processes. It was hard to enter, exit, and be in the UK. We encountered harshness, blind spots, and unnecessary obstacles. People were trying to make profits along the way. I have more to learn about being an ally as a Global Majority Indigenous woman from the West.
- I learned about Scotland’s history and got to work with RCers from Scotland and England. The local organizing in preparation for COP26 was impressive. I was reminded that people everywhere are organizing to end the climate crisis.
- We made good use of technology. I was able to take part in the daily SAL meetings on a big screen with other long-distance folks. We did a forum that brought in the voices of frontline communities that weren’t able to attend the COP in person. We brought in an audience on Zoom, and we livestreamed on Facebook. We made things work.
The circumstances imposed by COVID meant that we experienced unique challenges in terms of racism, other oppressions, internalized oppression, and the effects of colonization. They all had an impact and made things hard in places. But each of us persisted. We used what we know in RC and kept moving things forward.
COP26 gave us the chance to respond as flexibly—online, live, recorded, and in multiple languages with people from around the world—and with as much thought as we could manage. And, more than ever, I could tell [notice] that I was not doing this alone.
I am proud to be a part of Sustaining All Life, United to End Racism, and RC.
Seattle, Washington, USA
(Present Time 206, January 2022)