Beth Healy

As the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, takes place in Glasgow this week, students based in Northern Ireland might be wondering where and how they can get involved in supporting worldwide efforts to tackle the climate emergency, and also in campaigning for local change at Stormont.

The COP26 Coalition is a political organisation and organiser of COP26 marches and demonstrations across the UK. Its members are composed of people from all parts of society, including those from NGOs, trade unions, grassroots organisations and youth groups.

Local activist and environmental lawyer, Declan Owens is the main organiser of the efforts in Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland more broadly. As a lawyer with a background in trade union law, he explains how he became involved in pursuing eco-justice: “trade unions are a means of collective action in the same way that collective action is needed in the environment, so I'm looking at fusing the labour movement and the green movement.”

As Chair of the Haldane Society for Socialist Lawyers, Owens brings a socialist perspective to environmental issues, aiming “to fuse the local, regional, national and international aspects of climate justice.” He became involved in organising the COP26 Coalition through his membership of the Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group. Alongside COP26 Coalition, it has organised marches all over Britain, with Owens taking the lead on setting up efforts in Ireland: “I've just returned to Ireland and there was nothing going on there, so I got in touch with people in Belfast, Derry, Dublin and organised there.”

Belfast’s march will take place this Saturday, November 6 at 12pm, and will run from Cornmarket to City Hall, where there will be rallying for one hour. There is also a student feeder march starting from Queen’s University Belfast’s front gates at 11am and joining into the main march at Cornmarket. The Global Day of Action on November 6 is intended to generate local, national, and global support for the issues at COP26. As Owens’ explains: “The idea behind the COP26 Coalition is to have decentralised protests, and that means all over Britain and Ireland, anybody can effectively set up their own protest.”

Owens stresses the importance of protest in catalysing real change in the form of government legislation: “One of the issues is to try and pressure Stormont Administration to pass the Private Member's bill, which is the stronger of the two bills going through at the moment. Neither are sufficiently ambitious, but the Private Member's bill is better.”

Owens mentions the growing movement of the Rights of Nature, which seeks to give legal personhood to rivers, mountains, or trees, for example. Whilst it may seem like a radical concept to the Western world, many indigenous communities have been leading the way in treating nature as sacred. In some communities, this type of legislation is already being passed, such as in the case of the Muteshekau Shipu (Magpie River) in Québec’s Côte-Nord region in Canada, which was recently granted legal personhood (The Conversation).

Owens also notes the importance of changing how we approach the climate emergency at a governmental level: “We're already in a climate emergency… We need to react in a way that is similar to how we reacted in relation to COVID. It is an emergency situation on that scale so, if governments can react so quickly in relation to COVID, and deal with the emergency there, they can certainly do so in relation to the climate as well."

COP26 places a lot of focus on the global effort against the climate crisis, but Owens also stresses the importance of being aware of what’s happening to the environment on a local and community-focused level. “There's so much going on - we just need to get greater awareness about it." Particular issues which require attention are in Portaferry, where the council are seeking to chop down ancient trees, Dalradian, a potential gold and silver mine near the Sperrins, and the illegal dump built by Yara in Warrenpoint.

There are so many ways that students can get involved in tackling the climate crisis, and one of the best ways to combat feelings of eco-anxiety is by taking definitive action. For some, like Owens, that might be from a legal standpoint. For others, it may be through art. As Owens suggests, “Artists are important and powerful in the way in which they can convey the message… sometimes they [artists] can reach people in a different way”. Everyone can get involved, whether that is through coming together in protest, demanding government action, raising awareness of local and global climate issues, or even by making art.

Declan Owens will be hosting a free webinar on the Rights of Nature on November 7 at 2pm, which you can sign up to here.

COP26: The student feeder march can be found here and the COP26 Coalition Belfast Facebook page here.

Declan Owens Twitter handles are @owens_declan, @EcoJusticeLAC, @Ecojustice_Ire, @SocialistLawyer.

COP26 Coalition Belfast on how students can help tackle the climate crisis