Today a recording came through of an interview I forgot to mention yesterday with the Ministry of Eco-Education; this was done so teachers in the UK could zoom into the COP!

Meanwhile I travelled one more time on the metro through Dubai to the COP. There was lots of smog and coughing today as we rode beyond the station known as “gardens”. It’s slightly disconcerting how fast these driverless trains go!

TUNGO met again, my last meeting, to be told they’re all still behind closed doors (apart from yesterday’s occasional majlis created to put pressure on). Apparently Australia has been strong on phasing out fossil fuels and Germany is wanting a much stronger agreement too. Bolivia and Cuba meanwhile have stressed the injustices that need to be addressed. The good news is that Just Transition seemed to be reaching centre stage although this relates to its broader definition of addressing inequality and social justice rather than specifically measures in the workplace. Apparently Saudi and China are pushing back on the human rights parts of the texts.

The President of the COP intends to close tomorrow, as scheduled, although history shows that every COP in recent years has been extended way beyond the deadline, with more time added with every year, so this will only happen if he can find some way to pull out a good news story so as not to lose face.

So it is a waiting game now and with negotiators shut away, the COP was filled with people aimlessly wandering and chilling out in the seating areas. I actually got time to sit with my coffee and to explore some exhibits…

One exhibit by an energy company, had made a kind of sculpture park from recyclable parts of wind turbine blades. The company rep present was not able to explain what they would be recycled into but it was fun to take part in the graffitti!!

There is more than one way of lobbying!!! Next up was a meeting in the Colombian Pavilion, led by mining unions, about Just Transition plans with their new government. This was a great meeting- such vibrant speakers despite coming from the context of attacks on union reps and a history of conflict in the country.

Igor and Moises explained that in Colombia there are only two or three work sectors that have secure and unionised employment, including mining and teaching. They have a job to do to educate the workforce that mining has never delivered the wealth to the country that was promised and that they need to be part of a better future. But the battle will be to try to get new renewable industries into public ownership so that the jobs are decent. He said “transition is made not with speeches but with resources”. The question is being asked- “Energy for who and for what?” and this is a theme that has been repeated all around the COP; so many communities have been promised that wealth will trickle down when new companies arrive from overseas to exploit and extract resources but time and time again the people are left in poverty.

I found it really inspiring to hear from these open cast miners who were prepared for difficulties ahead, if done fairly, for the greater good. I shared our story from the UK of NEU reps working in schools in former mining areas to address the legacy of the unfairness that happened in their own unjust transition whose effects are still felt decades on.

I then moved on to the Australian pavilion where our Finnish union rep was sharing with our Aussie rep and an energy minister, the way they had transitioned. The energy guru seemed a little skeptical about a just transition repeatedly focussing on “we have to have the demand for renewables and when we don’t yet, we still have to make a profit”; Dan, our rep, had a brilliant last word: “I’d like us to think about the moral demands”.

The grand finale of the COP for most civil society reps is nowadays the “People’s Plenary”.

This was set up by the civil society groups (that includes trade unions) in the Madrid COP after the police there had forced everyone out of the COP following a protest. They demanded to reclaim the stage and so this happened from Glasgow onwards. In Glasgow a red ribbon had been sent all the way through from the Blue Zone to the people outside to connect everyone. In Egypt the focus had been human rights. This year there was a focus on Palestine and also the war in Sudan. Speakers connected militarisation with carbon and destruction of nature and people to climate change.

The Palestinian co-chair was wearing the key to her parents’ home in Palestine that they were forcibly removed from in 1948.

The YOUNGO rep from Sudan explained the reason no other Sudanese reps were present- unlike her, they didn’t get out in time and the airport is now completely destroyed by war.

Joy spoke as our Global South rep and described the link between precarious work and growing inequality, to massive cheers.

Bert spoke as our head of delegation and didn’t waste the opportunity to educate the crowd again on what we mean by “Just Transition” and why. He ended by prompting chants of “Ceasefire NOW!”

There were simply too many awesome speakers to list them all, but Asad Rehman is ALWAYS a pleasure to hear live: “Their empty words no longer fool anyone; for our fight has never simply been about reducing carbon; our fight has always been about ending injustice and inequity”.

The leader of the indigenous peoples, whose colonised name is Mary, said “I’m an old lady now and when someone outside asked who I am I said the only answer I know: “I am the air and the air is me; I am the water and the water is me; I am the fire and the fire is me; I am the earth and the earth is me”. She was surrounded by young people and said these are our future and “I am the knowledge holder, the wisdom keeper, for the global great grandchildren”. She said when they talk about nature-based solutions, WE are the nature-based solutions.

So many inspiring women; the next was a smallholder farmer from the Global South who talked about the Indian farmers’ strike: “they thought they could bury us; they didn’t know we are the seeds!”. What followed was a series of young people, the most notable being Naomi from South Sudan who was definitely more angry than Greta Thunberg and listed all the ways in which the world had broken all the international laws there to protect children. The gathering ended with shouting, chanting and a song led by the young as an indigenous woman led us out by drum. The overriding message was that we were all going home to continue the fight, knowing that COP wasn’t ever going to save us, but that people power just might and there’s therefore still hope…

Interestingly, while having lunch I heard some more drumming, coming from the Green Zone. I peeped through the hole in the fence and saw this:

The security man told me it was traditional Arabic cultural music coming from the UAE Green Zone pavilion. It was great! (But I couldn’t help wondering if they were getting their own back).

Later on crowds trooped into the plenary hall once more, for the official plenary of the day, having all just received leaked versions by whatsapp of the draft final texts. My own delegation were completely frustrated seeing barely any mention of workers in the texts at all. And worse still, it looked like 1.5 may slip away and the phasing out of fossil fuels had also disappeared. One rep described it as a manifesto for an unjust transition that leads to nothing.

The President told everyone they needed to try harder. We then got a speech by Azerbaijan, hosts of the next COP, and a film of the country…

…followed by a speech from Brazil, hosts of COP 30…and I began to wonder if I was sitting in Eurovision not COP?

The meeting ended fairly abruptly and now the negotiators are up all night trying to try harder…

As for me, I fly home tomorrow and go back to the day job Thursday. If there’s one tiny little victory we can take away from this, assuming it remains in the final text, it is that the draft text contains the phrase that countries are “urged” to undertake climate education in schools around the world. This is something we asked for and we got it. We can now plant seeds….