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Opinion

Voices of COP26

The importance of language; from the indigenous to our youngest leaders

1 minute read

Tanya Peacock, Senior Director Government Affairs and Policy at Bloom Energy, tells us about her personal experience attending the COP26 conference.

En route from London to Glasgow where I would be attending COP26, my seatmate on the short flight was an indigenous activist from Alaska. The Iñupiat people and other indigenous groups, she explained, had many concerns about carbon markets and geoengineering. As I listened to the issues troubling her, some of which might confound those proposing positive steps toward decarbonization, her voice began to frame my entire conference experience.

Connecting with indigenous communities

Like the young environmental leaders I would meet from the UK-based Future Leaders Network, my seatmate was passionate about being heard. She felt deeply connected to the Earth and viewed carbon markets as schemes that allow companies to pay to pollute, perpetuating a capitalist system that created problems in the first place by commodifying community assets. For indigenous groups like hers in Alaska, the idea of using whales to offset carbon emissions is seen as profaning a sacred resource. To those seeking to develop a whale-based carbon market that monetizes the value of live whales, which sequester carbon throughout their lifetime, such a market is seen as an environmental positive, incentivizing keeping whales alive.

Similarly, this indigenous activist was worried about how geoengineering to slow glacial melting might affect her community’s way of life. Plans to use synthetic sand to slow glacial melting could damage motors the Iñupiat rely on for fishing and hunting, and could potentially get into the food supply. Her goal in attending COP 26 was to add her voice—and the voice of indigenous communities at large—to the conversation as a call for urgent action and engagement from policy leaders.

Giving a voice to young leaders

Another underrepresented voice making an appearance at COP 26 was that of young leaders ready to find and propose solutions and policies to counteract climate change. I had lost my way trying to find the conference’s Blue Zone when I had a chance encounter with Duncan Harris from the Future Leaders Network, a nonprofit whose vision is to “create a new cohort of effective, ethical leaders to deliver positive change in the world.” As we walked together, we discussed the group’s goals for COP26 and I invited him and his group to attend selective events and receptions. After a reception for the US Sub-national delegation, a group of us sat down and created a youth engagement panel for the next day, Mapping the Present and Owning Our Future.

Ghassan Barghout (Bloom Energy), Mohammed-Hadi Osman (Future Leaders Network), Tanya Peacock (Bloom Energy) and Rosalind Skillen (Future Leaders Network)

As I got to know these aspiring leaders, policymakers, and activists, I was inspired by their tenacity and passion. This is genuinely their world to nurture and improve through energy transformation and beyond, and giving them a seat at the COP26 table felt like an imperative. One thing that became clear throughout our conversations is that making clean, reliable energy affordable for everyone in the world isn’t just Bloom Energy’s mission, but also a shared goal with today’s and tomorrow’s policy leaders.

The language of COP26

When most people think of COP26, they imagine a gathering of top political leaders, global CEOs, and environmental policymakers engaging in discussion, hashing out agreements, and representing their local and commercial interests. That’s certainly true, but what fundamentally shaped my experience there was hearing the voices of the indigenous and of our youngest leaders. Their seat at the table is equally important, if not more so, as the stakes they face are higher. I left the conference with renewed hope thanks to their contributions, and with a greater awareness that the language of decarbonization policy needs great attention.

When the world comes together with a common goal, we can achieve great things, but only if we tear down the Tower of Babel and find common ground with which to articulate the clean energy goals that will get us to a decarbonized future that honors every community whose resources are at risk.