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This year, the absence of civil society in these negotiating rooms has been decided. “We can’t participate; we don’t have the input to participate, ”says Tasneem Essop, executive director of the Climate Action Network (CAN) International, a leading group of nonprofit organizations working to ensure a progressive outcome in interviews. “We can’t have access to the place.”
Unlike journalists who do not enter negotiation rooms, CAN representatives typically have access to interviews. Here they can observe the negotiations and invite them to speak from time to time. But this year, on behalf of Covid-19 security, non-profit organizations came to find that the COP organizers had introduced a card system, as only two entries were given to the entire CAN International. This means that only two people from the CAN organization, which represents hundreds of minors, could enter and be seen running six sessions in parallel. In short, CAN International “is not able to continue negotiations,” says Essop.
Harjeet Singh, a senior adviser to CAN International and a veteran of climate talks, said the presence of civil society in negotiating rooms is essential to increase pressure on countries to move forward in talks. “There are some aspects that don’t behave properly, or that don’t turn a blind eye, we receive that information and we transmit that. This then reveals what is going on inside; it puts pressure and things align. ”
At COP26, observers have not entered any significant areas of the COP in the first two days when all negotiations begin, says Sébastien Duyck, chief lawyer for the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). This is usually the period when observers have the most access, he said, because civil society observers are often asked in the process when negotiations to leave the room later are heated.
“COP26 is starting very badly,” he says. “Based on my experience with the last 12 COPs, this is unprecedented. For many developing countries, for representatives from very difficult situations, because of Covid, the dangers of returning the virus, the need for quarantine and all this, it is ridiculous now to have to sleep in their expensive hotels. ”
Delegates were given some access to trading rooms via a virtual platform, but technical issues have prevented many from accessing this as well. On Tuesday, the UN Secretariat for Climate Change sent an email to delegates apologizing for “the inconvenience caused by access to the COP26 headquarters, both physically and virtually.” The e-mailed note added that the first days of COP26 were “a learning process in which participants and staff became accustomed to the logistical measures and circumstances associated with the pandemic.”
But many civil society attendees say the problems did not come from the key measures of Covid-19. “I’m sad about this,” Essop says. “Bringing all of us here, especially those from the Global South, and treating everyone with this kind of disrespect, means that where you really don’t have access, you think people are marginalized and irrelevant.”
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