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So far this year, there has been a clear lack of civil society presence in these negotiating rooms. “We cannot participate; we don’t have tickets to participate, “said Tasnim Esop, executive director of Climate Action Network (CAN) International, a major group of nonprofits working to ensure a progressive outcome to the negotiations. “We can’t access the place.”
Unlike journalists, who are not allowed in the meeting rooms, CAN delegates usually have access to the default negotiations. Here they can observe the negotiations and are sometimes invited to speak. But this year, for the safety of Covid-19, nonprofits arrived to find that COP organizers had introduced a ticketing system, with only two tickets given to the entire CAN International. This means that only two people from CAN, an organization representing hundreds of smaller ones, were able to enter and observe six sessions running in parallel. In short, CAN International “is unable to follow the negotiations,” Aesop said.
Harjit Singh, a senior adviser at CAN International and a veteran of climate talks, says the presence of civil society in the negotiating rooms is imperative to increase pressure on countries to make progress in the negotiations. “If there are some countries that are not behaving properly or are doing some kind of twisting of the hands, then we receive this information and pass it on. This then reveals what is happening inside; puts pressure and things get sorted out. ”
At COP26, observers did not have access to any significant areas of the COP for the first two days, just as all negotiations began, said Sebastien Duke, a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). This is usually the period when observers have the most access, he says, because civil society observers are often asked to leave the room later in the process when negotiations heat up.
“COP26 is starting extremely badly,” he says. “From my past experience with the last 12 COPs, this is unprecedented. For many developing countries, delegates who came from very difficult situations due to Covid, the risks of returning the virus, the need for quarantine and all this, it is ridiculous that they now have to stay in their overpriced hotels. ”
Delegates gained some access to meeting rooms via a virtual platform, but technical problems prevented many from even having access to it. On Tuesday, the UN Climate Change Secretariat sent an email to delegates apologizing for “the inconvenience of accessing the COP26 site, both physically and virtually.” The e-mail statement added that the first few days of COP26 were “a training process, with participants and staff getting used to the logistical measures and circumstances surrounding the pandemic”.
But many civil society actors say the problems don’t just come from basic measures for Covid-19. “I’m just sad about it,” says Aesop. “Bringing all of us here, especially those who come from the Global South, and treating everyone with that kind of disrespect when you find that you don’t really have access, just means that they think people are irreplaceable and inappropriate.”
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