Moray climate strikers tape mouths shut in plea for women's voices to be heard at COP26
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CLIMATE strikers stood vigil with taped-up mouths in Forres last week in a plea for women to be better represented at the COP26 climate talks due to begin in a week's time.
Local members of the fledgling global Women's Climate Strike movement have been holding regular silent vigils on Fridays over the past two months to express grief at ecological destruction at the hands of humans and to show solidarity with people paying a disproportionately heavy price.
Last Friday, October 22, an eight-strong group of women taped their mouths shut for an hour-long vigil at Forres Tolbooth, highlighting that only two out of 12 members of the UK's COP26 senior negotiating team are women.
The protesters say women's voices are effectively being silenced at the vital climate negotiations, along with those from other Most Affected Peoples and Areas (MAPA).
Their vigil ended with a song to stress the importance of hearing the voices of all those most affected.
The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) will be held in Glasgow from Sunday, October 31 to Friday, November 12, and could determine what course of action the world decides to take over the coming decade in efforts to tackle the climate and ecological emergency.
One of the strikers, Rachel Winter, said: "We had quite a lot of positive comments from passers-by and people clapping. A woman who is working for COP stopped and talked to us for a bit. I think it went really well.
"Our vigils have been running for about two months now to highlight the fact that women are so disproportionately affected – for many reasons.
"They are often the people who collect water for their families. Many women in the global south are rural farmers, and when natural disasters strike a lot more women than men tend to lose their lives because they don't swim or they stay behind to look after children.
"Typically in countries where there is less inequality between men and women that disparity declines.
"It's really important to have that gender perspective when we're looking at how to help countries become more resilient."
Frances Wardhaugh, a retired teacher from Elgin, said: "Women and children always suffer most from the impacts of climate change. They have to be listened to.
"It saddens me beyond words that, of the 12 members of the UK’s senior COP26 negotiating team, only two are women.
"The climate crisis will not be solved by a small group of privileged men or leaders deeply invested in the systems and beliefs lying at the heart of this crisis.
"What if women, indigenous peoples, the marginalised – people who live far more sustainably than world leaders and business executives – were leading the negotiations? Only by including their voices can we decide on a fair way forward to protect and eventually improve the wellbeing of all."
Members of the public are welcome to attend the group's final vigil in the run-up to COP26 this Friday, October 29, from 12.30-1.30pm.
More information on the Women’s Climate Strike movement, which includes women from countries such as Tanzania, Bangladesh and Uganda highlighting local issues, can be found on Twitter here.
