COP26: Socialist change to end the climate crisis

Oisin Duncan, Glasgow Young Socialists

COP26 is due to meet in Glasgow in November. At the last COP conference in Madrid in 2019, speeches from OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) and GECF (Gas Exporting Countries’ Forum) demanded their own stake in climate solutions, without reducing their share of profits.

The current UNFCCC proposals, in particular carbon capture, are largely untested and thus the effectiveness is unknown. Previous UN ‘solutions’, such as carbon trading, have failed, as emissions increased by 13,000 kilotons between 1996 and 2016.

The failure of capitalist solutions to the climate crisis has become clear, and therefore we need a socialist response.

Socialists cannot promote ‘green’ capitalism as part of any solution to the impending many-faced environmental disaster.

Jeff Bezos’ Green Investment Fund is a cynical attempt to control the development of renewable energy; it is also a hedged bet for his company Amazon, which supplies statistical analysis vital to the development of fracking and exploiting new oil and gas deposits.

The working conditions of Amazon’s delivery drivers and the company’s full-frontal assault on the employees drive to unionise the plant in Bessemer, Alabama demonstrate that big tech, just like the rest of the ruling class, is fundamentally opposed to raising working class living standards at the expense of their profits.

The previous point is critical; we cannot allow the same capitalist vultures to lead the so-called ‘Just Transition’.

While we cannot ignore the role of the Tory UK Government in supporting pollution-driven profiteering, (as they are currently discussing construction of a privately-owned nuclear power station in England), devolved governments also play a role.

To improve their image ahead of the next COP summit, the SNP-led Scottish Government are entering official negotiations with the Greens to support them in Holyrood.

Despite declaring a Climate Emergency in 2018 under pressure from the climate movement, the SNP remain cosy with North Sea fossil fuel companies, even setting up a £62 million fund of taxpayer money to pay for private corporations to reduce emissions.

The Scottish Greens who seem to be considering a de-facto coalition with the pro-capitalist SNP at Holyrood, are turning their backs on the young people who voted them in. Young people voting for Green parties understandably see them as the most environmentally friendly option. Yet they still uphold capitalism, and therefore defend the very system against which many youth have rebelled.

Climate strikes

Socialist Party Scotland participated in the climate strikes in 2019 on the streets, but the pandemic has caused the movement to retreat, with leading figure Greta Thunberg stating she will not attend COP26 because it is unsafe.

Other social movements, like Black Lives Matter, have correctly defied anti-democratic Covid legislation in order to protest the oppression suffered by millions under capitalism.

COP26 is a huge opportunity to rally the working class and youth bearing the brunt of climate change, and hold a discussion on the way forward.

Mass walkouts from schools and colleges should be organised to coincide with the COP summit in Glasgow to demand real action to tackle climate crisis.

We also call for a mass workers’ party to be formed which can organise a movement to resist the attempts of the state and private capital to make us pay for their errors.

Socialists support these movements because it is a tiny minority of society who are responsible for destroying the environment; just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of carbon emissions since 1970, and just 20 firms produce 55% of the world’s plastic pollution.

In human terms, this means that a few thousand capitalists are making decisions which mean life or death to billions of workers. Now the bosses want to control the transition from carbon, but we cannot allow this.

In private hands, any transition will put wages, jobs and living conditions at risk; only a democratically agreed plan of production based on public ownership and socialist planning can prevent environmental collapse without impoverishing the world working class.

We call for the retraining and redeployment of oil, gas and coal workers into renewable energy with a guarantee of no job losses; we demand a publicly owned, democratically controlled public transport system; we call for the nationalisation of the big polluting companies and of the land in Scotland, to construct renewable energy infrastructure and create new carbon sinks under democratic control.

Capitalism is destroying the planet. We need to fight for socialist change to end climate change.