GOP, Democratic lawmakers visit climate talks – KIRO 7 News Seattle

The latest from the UN climate summit COP26 in Glasgow:

GLASGOW – Glasgow became the site of a rare event on Saturday – a bipartisan U.S. Congress delegation attending a climate change summit.

Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, led the Republican and Democratic group to climate talks. Participating lawmakers said it showed an interest from Republican lawmakers in climate issues and what they said was a bipartisan commitment to the climate.

Utah Republican MP John Curtis elicited laughter from the audience at an Atlantic Council panel on Saturday by hyping the novelty of GOP lawmakers wanting to hang out with thousands of passionate climate advocates.

“My name is John Curtis and I am a Republican. And I’m here, ”said Curtis, chairman of a conservative conservation coalition in the US Congress.

Coons is co-chair of a non-partisan climate group in the Senate. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, was among more than half a dozen Republican MPs expected at the summit.

Since the 2018 mid-term election, which saw Democrats win seats on climate issues, Republican lawmakers have largely stopped publicly challenging the science that finds coal and oil burning is the main culprit of global warming.

Lawmakers on the delegation said a growing number of Republicans in Congress are looking to advocate slowing climate change, although Republicans and Democrats often have different ideas about tactics, including the role of state regulations.

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PARIS – Hundreds of activists gathered at Paris City Hall on Saturday to protest the inaction of the 10 most climate damaging nations in the world on climate change.

They made large portraits of French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi, the US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga ready along a banner that reads “Climate Inaction = Crimes Against Life”.

The protest in the French capital was one of many worldwide on the occasion of the Global Day of Action for Climate Justice during the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow.

The crucial UN climate summit opened last Sunday and ushered in two weeks of intense diplomatic negotiations by nearly 200 countries aimed at slowing accelerating global warming and adapting to the ongoing climate damage.

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LONDON – Thousands of steel drums marched outside the Bank of England in central London to urge action at the UN Climate Change Conference.

Protesters waved Extinction Rebellion banners on Saturday and carried placards reading “Help!” Over a picture of the earth as they marched 2 miles to Trafalagar Square.

Protester Sue Hampton, 64, says everyone is at risk and all generations must come together to press for action.

“Even if I knew for sure that I could reach the natural end of my life without seeing any horror, I would still be here because I have grandchildren and other people have grandchildren,” she said. “So we can’t let the young people do all the work here. We all have to do it together. “

Climate activists also rallied in Dublin, Ireland, with a noisy group gathering in the Garden of Remembrance commemorating those who fell in the Irish struggle for independence.

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GLASGOW – Elaine Knox, 69, and William Oliphant, 60, of Glasgow don’t fit the normal demographics of youth-centric climate protests, but they were still at the massive climate rally in the Scottish city on Saturday to urge governments to act faster on climate issues .

“I’ll die before the worst happens,” Knox said. “It is the youngsters that we leave behind from a terrible, terrible world.”

“We’re in a nightmare,” she added.

Oliphant said that if people like her don’t fight the money interests that are warming the earth, “they’ll just fall back and things will go on as ever.”

“It takes more than just yelling and protests, it takes fighting,” said Oliphant. “If we don’t fight, it’s too late.”

Jamila Khatoon from Pakistan carried a sign about three glaciers in her region that could disappear due to climate change.

“The glaciers are melting,” said Khatoon. “Villages are drowning. Nobody does anything. “

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AMSTERDAM – Tens of thousands of people marched through Amsterdam in a demonstration calling for more action to be taken to combat climate change.

The March Saturday in the Dutch capital was one of many around the world to coincide with a United Nations meeting on climate change in Glasgow, Scotland.

Banners-waving protesters gathered in central Dam Square before marching to a park to the west of the city. The banners read: “People and the climate over profit for polluters”, and another read: “#Weable to solve the Climate Crisis”.

The organizers estimated that 40,000 people attended. The police did not initially estimate the size of the crowd.

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ISTANBUL – A small group of climate protesters demonstrated in Istanbul’s Kadikoy district on Saturday calling for action to save the planet for future generations.

Around 80 people gathered in front of the Sureyya Opera House on the district’s main shopping street, singing, drumming and holding posters with messages such as “Unite for the climate” and “Environment without class struggle is gardening”.

“I want my children to live on a beautiful planet in the future,” said 52-year-old pensioner Kadriye Basut.

She added, “I think we have to leave a beautiful planet. I think we owe that to our children and the planet. We see that the heads of state and government of the world do nothing about it, they just say ‘blah, blah, blah’. “

The university professor Baris Gencer Baykal, 43, called for an end to coal use earlier than the goals of world politicians at the UN climate change conference in Glasgow.

“It cannot be postponed any longer,” he said. “Because we feel the climate change more and more every day. Both developing and industrialized countries are suffering from this. We want climate justice. “

Turkey has been suffering from drought for several years and this summer the country has been hit by forest fires, floods and mucilage in the Sea of ​​Marmara related to water warming and pollution.

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WARSAW, Poland – Union members from the Polish energy sector protested outside the European Union office in Warsaw, saying that EU efforts to cut coal consumption are responsible for rising energy prices.

About 200 power plant and coal mine workers from across Poland blew horns and waved union flags while they sang. The motto of the protest was “YES for Poland’s energy sovereignty. NO to high energy and heat prices. “

Union leaders say EU energy policy will hurt Poland’s economy. The coal industry is a major employer in Poland, with more than half of its electricity coming from hard coal and lignite.

A government energy policy plan calls for greater use of nuclear energy as soon as the infrastructure is built.

Like other EU member states, Poland has committed to phasing out coal and developing wind, solar and other renewable energy sources. At the UN climate summit in Glasgow this week, the government said it could not shut down all coal-fired power plants by 2049, a target that disappointed activists.

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GLASGOW, Scotland – British actor Idris Elba brought his star power to the UN climate talks in Glasgow to highlight the importance of helping smallholders tackle global warming.

Elba and his wife, model Sabrina Dhowre Elba, took to the stage on Saturday to support the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Elba said he wanted to highlight the dangers of disrupting global food chains as smallholders in particular are affected by the effects of climate change. He said that 80% of the food consumed worldwide is produced by smallholders.

“This food-related conversation really needs to be stepped up and one thing I have is a big mouth,” said Elba.

On the same podium, Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate, 24, said that global warming is already starving millions of people around the world, including in her own country.

She said switching from meat to a plant-based diet could help save millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year while freeing up more land that is currently used for animal feed.

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GLASGOW, Scotland – Police helicopters buzzed over Glasgow early Saturday as authorities prepared for a second day of protests by climate activists calling for faster action to curb global warming.

Despite light drizzle and strong winds, tens of thousands of people were expected to rally through the Scottish city where this year’s UN climate talks are taking place.

Inside the conference venue, the negotiators met for a seventh day of negotiations to finalize draft agreements that can be submitted to ministers for political approval next week.

Topics haggled over by nearly 200 countries during the talks include a new commitment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, get countries to review their efforts more often, and financial support for poor countries.

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