In Glasgow, in the streets, churches or around the conference center, civil society tries to exist on the sidelines of COP26 – archyworldys

It is raining heavily in Glasgow on Saturday morning, November 6. In Kelvingrove Park, west of the city, where the giant “Global Day of Action” event is due to start, Alicia Guzman dreams of a hot coffee. A member of the NGO Stand Earth, this Ecuadorian works hard to make the indigenous populations of the Amazon visible. But she wonders whether to maintain this human chain initially planned around a giant fabric installation that volunteers try to fix on the spongy ground: a blue butterfly, symbol of life among the Amazonian peoples. “Yes, yes, people will come despite the weather”, launches a colleague in Spanish.

He was right to insist: the Scottish deluge did not stop the demonstrators. More than 100,000 people converged in Glasgow to put pressure on the negotiators locked up a few hundred meters in the Scottish Event Campus where the COP26 has been held since October 31st. And they competed in their imagination to carry their messages: the necessary ” end of BLA bla “, the obligation to“Act now”, “Because there is no planet B”. At the feet of the soggy butterfly, we saw a unicorn, birds and giant terrestrial globes, banners of all colors, flags of all countries, choirs singing at the top of their lungs.International or Christian songs, kilts and bagpipes …

Perseverance and creativity

And for good reason. It takes perseverance and creativity to succeed in existing and capture the attention of the media on the sidelines of such a huge climate conference (30,000 participants from at least 120 different countries). And very exclusive: accreditation is required to move from “green” areas (open to the general public) to “blue” areas (where negotiations take place) and navigating between the two takes time. “We need places where civil society and accredited people can exchange more easily”, suggests Alicia Guzman.

For the moment, on the media exposure side, the representatives of the indigenous peoples, in particular from the Amazon, are doing quite well. It must be said that they came in numbers: eighteen Amazonian leaders made the trip from nine South American countries, many young people accompany them, who proudly wear headdresses or traditional tattoos in the streets of Glasgow and the corridors. of the COP. They were leading the youth parade on Friday November 5th, just ahead of Greta Thunberg and they were leading the protest again on Saturday. “Since the beginning of 2021, the various NGOs representing their interests have come together to amplify their messages”, explains Alicia Guzman.

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