National Union of Students lay out the student movement’s key asks for COP26
Today, as Boris Johnson begins hosting world leaders in Glasgow for the #COP26 summit, student presidents from across the UK have joined together in calling for urgent action to stop the climate emergency.
The presidents are urging the Prime Minister to reach a deal which commits to divesting from fossil fuels, the arms trade and other harmful industries and decarbonising education and the UK economy. Further to divestment and decarbonisation, system change beyond what any Government can deliver is needed through grassroots demands on decolonisation.
Larissa Kennedy (NUS UK), Matt Crilly (NUS Scotland), Becky Ricketts (NUS Wales) and Ellen Fearon (NUS-USI) said:
“We need urgent action to stop this crisis and end climate injustice.
“Systemic change is needed – in society, government, and in our education. No ifs, no buts, no cop outs. It is the responsibility of Governments to hold exploitative corporations to account and fix the emergency that they have created.
“Students are tired of watching our politicians go through the motions, wheel out catchy soundbites about deadlines decades away, only to find that nothing has fundamentally changed.
“We only have one planet, and our Prime Minister only has one job. With the world’s most powerful people in one room, Boris Johnson has one chance to get a deal which secures the urgent changes we need on divestment and decarbonisation. We must also see the voices of students and other grassroots campaigners heard on the crucial role of decolonisation in redressing the climate crisis, which we know to be a racist crisis.”
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