CAN Executive Director Tasneem Essop reacts to The COP26 Five-Point Plan for Solidarity, Fairness and Prosperity developed by Power Shift Africa, ACT2025 Consortium and the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities:

15 July 2021

Rising climate impacts, the Covid19 pandemic and escalating debt crises in low-income countries make it clear that the only solution to address multiple crises is to strive for international solidarity, fairness and prosperity for all.

This new report: COP26 Five-Point Plan for Solidarity, Fairness and Prosperity published by organisations from the global South, including PowerShift Africa, ACT2025 and the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities, lays out clear benchmarks for success in COP26, anything short will be considered a failure. Centering the needs of vulnerable communities, delivering finance to implement the Paris Agreement and a just transition to clean energy requires unprecedented levels of international cooperation, solidarity and commitment by political leaders to act in good faith and implement the Paris Agreement. 

The science is clearer than ever: the 1.5 ℃ goal that countries committed to under the Paris Agreement is our only chance to protect people and ecosystems and it is attainable. This is the moment for world leaders to rise to the challenge. 

COP26 will be both a moral and practical test that will define the legacy of political leaders: earning them a badge of honour for steering the world through this critical time, or bearing the shame of being complicit in our demise.