The presence of their delegations at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26) will be an opportunity for several Quebec organizations to see and hear what is happening there, but also to make themselves heard and to meet their colleagues. from all over the world.
COP26 will open over the next few hours in Glasgow, Scotland, and last until 12 November.
“Everyone will try to find their interest there,” said Denis Bolduc, secretary general of the Federation of Workers of Quebec, the FTQ, which sends a delegation of eight people.
“For example, the FTQ Construction can discuss tips and measures that may exist elsewhere with partners. It’s a great opportunity to network with other international unions who may have done things as well, to be inspired for perhaps future projects. “
The FTQ delegation will be made up of union representatives, but also members of affiliated unions such as the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the Steelworkers.
Two leading environmental organizations, Équiterre and the Climate Action Network, will also be on site.
Équiterre sees it as an opportunity “to have privileged access to our decision-makers to put pressure so that there is a real increase in climate ambition, to ensure that the decisions taken at the COP are the good, ”said Émile Boisseau-Bouvier, who is a climate policy analyst for the environmental group.
“But secondly, we also have a duty to inform civil society that is found in Quebec, to inform the media, the public, on the nature of the negotiations,” he added. Once again, are we headed in the right direction? Are the right decisions being made? It is of crucial importance for our collective future. “
This meeting should normally have taken place last year, recalls Caroline Brouillette, the director of national policies of the Climate Action Network, but it was postponed due to the pandemic. And even this year, the coronavirus will prevent several countries from being there.
“It is disproportionately countries that suffer more from the impacts of the climate crisis, countries of the South, and therefore there will really be this imbalance in the negotiations, with several crucial voices who will not be there,” he said. she lamented.
Skepticism
The three organizations are well aware of the skepticism with which certain sections of the population view these major international meetings, which sometimes give the impression of an elephant giving birth to a mouse.
The presence of groups to put pressure on decision-makers becomes all the more important, believes Mr. Boisseau-Bouvier.
“Indeed, sometimes there are a lot of words and few gestures, he admitted. It is our role precisely to ensure that the boots follow the lips. “
Ms. Brouillette says she understands “the skepticism of the population who realize that we are not doing enough”, when we see the modest progress that has been made when we know the impact of climate change for 50 years.
But this modest progress would probably not have been possible without major international meetings, and a meeting which results in modest progress is preferable to the total absence of meetings and progress, agree to say the participants from Quebec.
“We must nevertheless recognize that we have managed to bend the curve of the increase in temperature a little,” said Ms. Brouillette.
Keep in mind that before the signing of the Paris Agreement, the planet was heading towards a warming of 4 ° C, she recalls, while the most recent United Nations report now forecasts a warming of 2.7 ° C.
A warming of 2.7 ° C is “catastrophic”, she says, “but it is complicated sometimes”.
“There are two truths which coexist, the one that we advance well, the other also, is that we do not move fast enough,” added Ms. Brouillette.
Mr. Boisseau-Bouvier agrees in the same vein, stressing that the most recent international meetings “have nevertheless succeeded in having the countries endow themselves with common mechanisms”.
COP26 will be an opportunity to take stock of the pursuit of the objectives of the Paris Agreement and to ensure that they are not forgotten. “It’s time to get into second, third, fourth gear,” he said, otherwise we risk “hitting a wall”.
Denis Bolduc, of the FTQ, recognizes that it can be difficult to identify the concrete repercussions of participating in such international meetings, but he cites as an example the “just transition”, a framework developed by the labor movement to protect workers when economies turn to sustainable production.
“We talked a lot about it, then we bring it back here in Quebec, then we try to see how we could apply that, he said. We are trying to set up here in Quebec what are called just transition laboratories. “
Pivotal moment
For the moment, said Mr. Boisseau-Bouvier, we “have reduced the damage”, but the fact remains that we have reached a “pivotal moment in our history”.
We all share the same planet, he recalls, but if we do not manage to come to an agreement to achieve collective objectives, “there will be no winner and everyone will lose out.”
“We have realized many vulnerabilities in our system, with a convergence of public health crises, an economic crisis, but also the climate crisis which hit us hard, especially here in Canada this summer,” said Ms. Brouillette.
COP26 brings together most of the world’s major decision-makers, she adds, and it is therefore a perfect opportunity for representatives of civil society to make their voices heard.
“Of course we would always like it to go beyond fine words,” said Mr. Boisseau-Bouvier. It is up to our decision-makers to listen to the people who want to see ambition, who want to see results. It’s up to them to deliver the goods. “