With approximately 30,000 heads of state, environmental activists, journalists and more at this year’s United Nations climate conference, COP26, over 700 civil society groups — including Turtle Island Restoration Network — called for solutions to the climate crisis, instead of hollow “Net Zero” promises.
Demands from the 725 groups from nearly 100 nations included calling for specific, ambitious, and immediate actions to bring emissions and fossil fuel production down. Conversely, net zero promises mask inaction against climate crises and solely provide an illusion for business-as-usual production of fossil fuels.
The 725 signatories called on states to:
- Curb emissions at the source through phasing out fossil fuels, industrial agriculture, plastics, and other polluting industries
- Reject dangerous distractions which entrench fossil economy and exacerbate frontline risks
- Invest in transformation by redirecting subsidies to workers and communities and replacing fossil fuel infrastructure and industrial food systems
- Protect and restore ecosystems — not to commodify and trade the carbon they contain — but to respect and sustain the lives and livelihoods they support
- Support local solutions by promoting Indigenous and community-led alternatives, ensuring food sovereignty, and securing work and livelihoods
- Deliver accountability by making polluters pay for their damages and prevent future harm, and by ensuring that those most responsible for historic greenhouse gas emissions move first and fastest to reduce emissions and increase financing for lower-income countries hardest hit by the climate emergency.
The demands called for real transformation, backed by real resources. Real actions must be taken with urgency to combat climate crises the planet is facing.
