Al Gore: COP26, the Conference of the Parties on the climate treaty, is where every nation in the world comes together to negotiate collective action to solve the climate crisis.
Christiana Figueres: COP26, which is the one that is coming up now, in Glasgow, is the 26th time that these governments are getting together to do, frankly, follow-up to the Paris Agreement. They need to come to the table to report to each other what they have done since Paris, and most importantly, commit to each other what further efforts they’re going to do over the next five-to-10 years -- the most decisive decade in the history of humanity.
Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr.: Well, the first thing with COP26 that the average viewer should find -- there’s a lot of acronyms. So, unfortunately, there’s one right now, the IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change did a report that said that we had 12 years. Now that was three-and-a-half years ago.
Gonzalo Muñoz: And COP26 is also a COP that has been affected, I would say positively, by the last two IPCC reports. Science spoke very loudly in October 2018 with the IPCC report of 1.5 degrees. And just a few months from today, we received this sixth report in August that was named as a red code for humanity. Those two reports are allowing us to understand the importance of following science and the big risk that we have in front of us if we don’t follow the science, as is indicated in those reports.
CF: The commitments that are going to be made at COP26 are critically important because they will tell us whether we are on track to the goal that has to be reached by 2030, which is cutting global emissions from where they are today to 50 percent.
Xiye Bastida: The language is not everyday language, and it is the job of us as activists to be communicators of the science and of the decisions that happen behind these walls. The involvement of youth is really important because we bring the element of urgency. And I think that including indigenous voices is critical, because Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous philosophy of taking care of Mother Earth as a reciprocal action is part of the paradigm shift that we need to achieve.
GM: Every one of us can and must deliver actions at different scales. Not only political leaders -- business leaders, financial institutions, everyone that has a capacity of taking a decision -- the decision-makers -- they have the unique opportunity of being part of the most important challenge that we have ever faced as a species.
LY Jr.: I hope you don’t lose hope; I pray you don’t lose hope. I’ve seen some of you want to check out. Don’t check out, don’t give up, don’t give in. Fight to the end. Whatever you do, keep fighting for this planet.
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