GreenLatinos Decries Lack of Ambition and Failure to Rapidly Phase out Fossil Fuels At COP26

Colorado - Mark Magaña, the founding President & CEO of GreenLatinos, released the following statement about a global deal aimed at staving off the most dangerous effects of climate change that was agreed upon at the COP26 summit in Glasgow:

“The Latino/a/x community and other frontline communities are facing the very real impacts of our climate crisis. We came to Glasgow to meet that crisis head on, with a fervor, rigorousness, and seriousness that this moment requires. Sadly, the lack of ambition displayed by many nations and failure to phase out all fossil fuels like coal and methane gas will not help us meet our collective 1.5 degree climate goal.

In this climate crisis moment, it is outrageous that the global North refuses to pay for the loss and damage that it has caused the global South over decades of unrestrained growth and pollution. It is selfish, shortsighted, and greedy. The United States consumes 24% of global resources while being only 5% of the world’s population. We must meet this moment with moral clarity and this is all the more disappointing given the inequitable access for frontline representatives that we witnessed at COP this year.

While we are ultimately disappointed in the outcome of COP26, it has become all the more obvious to us that we can't stand by and  count on our current global leadership to look out for our children’s futures. I believe in the leadership of our frontline members and communities across the globe who are leading everyday despite an ongoing lack of bold climate leadership on a global level. Together we must, and will create change at a subnational level, led by our frontline community leaders."

GreenLatinos is an active comunidad of Latino/a/x leaders, emboldened by the power and wisdom of our culture, united to demand equity and dismantle racism, resourced to win our environmental, conservation, and climate justice battles, and driven to secure our political, economic, cultural, and environmental liberation.

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