Greenwashing vs. Greta in Glasgow
From the airport to the negotiating table, COP26 has marketing opportunity written all over it. The youth simply won’t have it.
At the Fridays for Future climate strike at COP26, the UN’s global conference on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland, the message from youth activists was clear: consumption is the root of the climate crisis. We can’t build the future we want while continuing to rely on and even promote extraction and over-consumption. One of the chants that reverberated throughout the crowd was “climate change is a war… of the rich against the poor.” It’s true that the individuals, communities, and nations that consume the most are disproportionately responsible for a crisis that disproportionately impacts the poor: those who live in undesirable, at-risk areas and who don’t have the resources to fund adaptation strategies or to migrate before situations become dire.
However, the messages plastered around Glasgow are different. Immediately after unloading in the airport, wall-length posters slap you in the face with climate-forward marketing schemes. Some of these, like a banner for a UK-based vegan food company, are promoting an actual climate-friendly choice and product. Of course, they are looking to sell you something, but at least that “thing” maintains some integrity. However, there are also plenty of products that have long benefited from cycles of over-consumption, extraction, and fast fashion that are marketing green alterations to their original product. Does this make the product slightly better than it once was? Yes. Does it make the product green? You can decide.
It is the youth who are standing up to say that these are not the kinds of solutions we want, in fact, Greta dubbed the conference a “Global North greenwash festival” on Twitter. Given vaccine inequity and the added challenges, risks, and expenses of traveling during the pandemic, groups from the global south have struggled to be present on the ground at COP this year. With housing shortages in Glasgow, some who have made the long journey struggle to even find a place to stay. When I picked up my luggage after storing it for the day at Queen Street Station, the attendant wanted to make sure I had somewhere to sleep. Two delegates from Colombia had come by that morning to drop off their luggage while they looked for somewhere to stay the night. They had spent the whole day searching for any possible accommodations, but at five o’clock, it was already dark, and they returned to pick up their luggage with no destination in mind. Given the messages I’ve seen flying back and forth between activists on WhatsApp, this isn’t an uncommon experience.
COP isn’t an opportunity, it’s a necessity. Climate change isn’t an angle, it’s a crisis.
Meanwhile, the youth who are in Glasgow are screaming, but is the message getting through? While there were certainly some official COP delegates present at the youth climate strike, many were going about their business in the blue zone, which is only open to those with UN badges, avoiding the frustrated youth entirely. In the blue zone, there is certainly excitement and radical vision, but the highest-level conversations often revolve around details (and making agreements amenable to the biggest polluters). In those conversations, re-imagining systems and structures from the ground up simply isn’t happening.
At Saturday’s climate march, which came just one day after the youth climate strike, activists were already passing out pamphlets that said “COP’s a bust, what’s next?” There’s still one full week of COP remaining, and many long-awaited announcements to be made. Yet for those on the outside looking in, the conference has already failed.
COPs are an interesting mix of things: part protest, part diplomacy, and part festival of sorts. For companies looking to promote their brand in a new light, COP26 is perceived as an opportunity. Even I went into the COP viewing it as a great opportunity for activism — to network, speak to the media, and stand up for climate action. However, I’ve found myself continuously exhausted, angry, and worst of all struggling to see the hope in it all. Maybe that’s because COP isn’t an opportunity, it’s a necessity. Climate change isn't an angle, it’s a crisis. I still believe there is hope to be found, but it’s certainly not by greenwashing our way to promotion and profit. The word on the street is that “we need system change, not climate change.”
