12/10/2019: NINTH DAY OF COP25
The week progresses and there is more and more pressure to find out what the agreements are and see how the different threads are tied and which ones remain untied.
Civil society, indigenous movements and climate activists see that the week is progressing and for the moment the great unknowns have not been resolved. There are many pressure groups behind closed doors, which is why these groups that have entered the blue zone but do not have access to closed negotiation rooms have increased their activity. The corridors of the blue zone are a hive of activity where there are ministers, activists, the press, observers from international organizations, members of NGOs from all over the world, official delegations, indigenous people and workers from the summit.
Among this incessant coming and going of people from all over the world, we can see Indonesian dances, traditional Polynesian music, informal meetings of financial groups, impromptu interviews in any corner, people gathered eating or simply chatting. You can also see journalists sitting on the ground writing chronicles and children, young people and adults walking from one pavilion to another and going in and out of the different meeting rooms and thematic pavilions of the different countries.
It is also noticeable in the corridors of COP25 that the opposing positions are beginning to emerge. We have witnessed in extremis how a group of Peruvian indigenous people managed to make an appointment to negotiate their situation with the Minister of the Environment of the Andean country. Members of environmental groups and conscientious participants are increasingly being made to feel more present by pushing for greater ambition, lobbying politicians and denouncing the presence of certain businessmen.
Civil society is also present in the green zone and is critical of the official discourse. The good words of politicians and rulers are not always convincing because they are not always accompanied by exemplary actions. Topics such as geoengineering and criticism of the carbon market are becoming increasingly louder in unofficial forums. In the streets the pressure also begins to escalate, the entrance road is being blocked day in and day out, preventing access to the summit.
And the truth is that the official discourse of diplomats and ministers is also in line with being more ambitious in the reductions, giving relevance to the discourse of young people at a global level and carrying out an accelerated and impressive just transition. Indigenous people, countries of the global south, island nations and women are recognized as the agents that suffer the most from the consequences of climate change. Let’s hope that the agreements also reflect what is collected in these speeches. At the moment, carbon offsetting measures continue to endanger indigenous territories, emissions continue to rise as oceans grow, threatening life in the Pacific, women continue to face the worst consequences of climate change, and the future of young people remains uncertain. be insured.