Climate Reality – Facing Up or COPping Out?
Did COP26 face up to climate reality? We apply some tough tests to its outcomes, and think about the hard challenges ahead. Join Rupert Read, Elsie Luna and John Foster for a searching assessment from three different perspectives, followed by a lively discussion.
Green House's book, Facing Up to Climate Reality sets key benchmarks for the kind of transformative change which we shall need if we are to avert climate catastrophe. It is now clear that the outcomes from COP26 have badly failed to measure up to these, most evidently in the vital areas of energy transition, adequacy of commitments, follow-through on commitments and international compensation for loss and damage.
Join Rupert Read, Elsie Luna and John Foster for a searching assessment from three different perspectives, followed by a lively discussion.
Speakers:
Rupert Read is professor of philosophy at the University of East Anglia. A former chair of Green House think tank, he is also a former Extinction Rebellion spokesperson and Green Party of England and Wales councillor, spokesperson, European and national parliamentary candidate. He is presently a leading member of GreensCAN, the recently-formed network of Green Party climate activists. His new book Parents for a Future (2021) is out now.
Elsie Luna is a 13-year old who began protesting in solidarity with Greta in October 2018. She won a Green Heart Hero Award in March 2019 (presented by Caroline Lucas MP) for Individual Inspiration after confronting fossil fuel companies in London. She was a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion during the 2019 rebellions and founded XR Kids. Born and mostly raised in England, she has been living in Colombia for the past year and is focusing on ecofascism and indigenous resistance.
John Foster is an ageing environmentalist, a grandfather lately retired from university teaching and currently co-Chair of Green House. He is the author of After Sustainability (2015) and edited Facing Up to Climate Reality. His Realism and the Climate Crisis: Hope for Life comes out with Bristol University Press in February 2022.
