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鈥淭he Conference of the Profiteers鈥� is how some Black, Brown, and Indigenous environmental justice activists have described the 26^th Conference of the Parties, or COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference. The conference, which convened in Glasgow, Scotland, earlier this month, has an ambitious-sounding goal of achieving  by 2030. 

In a , President Joe Biden explicitly cited net-zero emissions as a centerpiece of his approach to climate change, saying, 鈥淥ur administration has been hard at work unlocking clean energy breakthroughs to drive down the cost of technologies that will require us 鈥� to achieve net-zero emissions, and working with the private sector on the next generation of technologies that will power a clean economy of the future.鈥�

But several Black, Brown, and Indigenous activists who attended COP26 say the net-zero framework鈥攁nd other 鈥渕arket-based solutions鈥� that rely on technological fixes鈥攊s no panacea for the  being done to mostly Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, known as .

鈥淲hat鈥檚 being negotiated at COP26 is the making of another carbon market,鈥� says Ananda Lee Tan, strategy advisor to the Just Transition Alliance in San Diego, California.

鈥淕rassroots movements and movements representing the voices of front-line communities have to take an oppositional stance to COP26 and its frameworks of net-zero emissions, its framework of carbon capture and storage, carbon trading and offsets, and the myriad subsidies they鈥檙e hoping to provide dirty energy,鈥� Tan said frankly in a Zoom call from Glasgow.

Jonathan Alingu, co-director of , who also attended COP26, agrees. 

鈥淯ntested technologies brought up at COP26, they鈥檙e all going to be placed in these Black, Brown, [and] Indigenous communities,鈥� says Alingu. 鈥淭he picture looks really grand when you see it on TV, but the results of that will be at the expense of Black people鈥檚 health, Brown people鈥檚 health, Indigenous people鈥檚 health.鈥�

Tan, Alingu, and their colleagues see racial justice as a central tenet of climate justice and offer solutions that are quite different from net-zero emissions, carbon capture, and other similar ideas championed by political and corporate elites at COP26. Those solutions include phasing out fossil fuels and following the lead of front-line communities.

Why Technological Fixes to Climate Change Could Harm People of Color

The idea behind net-zero is that if enough greenhouse-gas emissions are removed from the environment to balance out those emissions being generated to power the global economy, the net effect on the atmosphere will be effectively neutral. 

But Alejandr铆a Lyons, environmental justice organizer with the , based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, says, 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a real solution, it鈥檚 a false solution, and it鈥檚 going to continue to affect our communities because we鈥檙e the ones that these offsets are always put towards.鈥� 

Jos茅 Bravo, executive director of the Just Transition Alliance, concurs, and explains that 鈥渇or communities of color in the United States and in the environmental justice movement, what 鈥榥et-zero鈥� means is that in aggregate pollution, carbon emissions for much of the population will go down.鈥� But for communities at the 鈥溾�� of these industries, 鈥渃arbon emissions will go up.鈥�

Such concerns are based on decades of disproportionately deadly impacts of extractive and polluting industries placed in low-income communities of color. A recent investigation on pollution in the U.S. by  concluded that areas 鈥渨here the majority of residents are people of color experience about 40% more cancer-causing industrial air pollution on average than tracts where the residents are mostly white.鈥� Additionally, 鈥淚n predominantly Black census tracts, the estimated cancer risk from toxic air pollution is more than double that of majority-white tracts.鈥�

If and when innovations such as carbon-capture plants become viable, there is a consensus among activists of color at COP26 that their communities will bear the disproportionate brunt of the technology鈥檚 potential negative impact, as stated above by Alingu, who marched in the streets of Glasgow alongside Lyons and Bravo. 

鈥淚n our communities, there is much of the production of carbon emissions and little of the reductions, because companies can buy pollution credits,鈥� says Bravo.

Conference of the Profiteers?

While offsetting greenhouse gases so the net result is zero emissions sounds like an elegant theoretical solution to climate change, the technology to achieve it鈥攕uch as carbon capture鈥攊s, according to the , 鈥渟till emerging, very expensive and as yet unproven.鈥� Climate scientists are  of the viability of such an approach. 

But the world鈥檚 largest private asset management firm, , which climate activists have dubbed 鈥渢he world鈥檚 top investor in climate destruction,鈥� has backed the idea of net-zero emissions to address climate change, as have about  in the world. One reason may be that there are  in technology financing up for grabs. 

Tan says a net-zero approach privileges 鈥渢he industries that are most responsible for causing this crisis, the most carbon-intensive, the most polluting industries,鈥� and provides them 鈥渓oopholes and ways in which they can continue to profiteer off causing harm.鈥�

A recent  of COP26 attendees by numerous watchdog groups concluded, 鈥淔ossil fuel lobbyists as a bloc outnumber the biggest country delegation.鈥� Echoing what has become a common refrain among activists, Bravo said the Conference of the Parties really represents a 鈥淐onference of the Profiteers.鈥�

What Would Real Climate Solutions Centered on Racial Justice Look Like?

Alingu, Bravo, Lyons, and Tan traveled to Glasgow for COP26 as part of , a delegation of climate justice activists of color from the U.S. and Canada. Lyons says it is important for activists like her to be present at global climate meetings because historically the voices of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people have been 鈥渃ompletely left out.鈥� 

鈥淎nd our communities are always the last at the table,鈥� Lyon says. 

According to Tan, the COP26 negotiations are taking place within a 鈥渃olonial framework,鈥� meaning wealthy nations are exercising their privilege to protect their own interests. 

In response, Indigenous activists  over a period of five days in late October in Washington, D.C., in preparation for the Glasgow convening. They dubbed the protests 鈥淧eople vs. Fossil Fuels鈥� and demanded President Biden 鈥淏uild Back Fossil Free,鈥� an obvious reference to the president鈥檚 landmark Build Back Better legislation. 

Then, in Glasgow on Nov. 6, many of those same activists marched alongside an estimated  denouncing net-zero as a 鈥渟moke screen,鈥� and demanding that fossil fuels remain in the ground. Over the course of the global meeting, activists, including delegates from It Takes Roots, continued carrying out  to bring attention to the false solutions of net-zero. 

鈥淲e seek real solutions, not net-zero nonsense,鈥� says Tan. 

The baseline demand many climate justice activists are making is the elimination of fossil fuels altogether, which they say would directly address the source of the problem. The fact that the phasing out of a fossil fuel such as coal was explicitly mentioned in a draft agreement circulating at COP26 for the first time was, according to the , 鈥渁 welcome breakthrough for most activists,鈥� and is likely the result of relentless pressure from grassroots groups that have demanded such language be inserted into COP agreements for years.

They posit that if industries continue to extract and burn fossil fuels, humanity will not survive, and no amount of technological fixes will suffice. 

But even phasing out fossil fuels by keeping them in the ground is insufficient. 

In order to not repeat the environmental racial injustices of the past, 鈥淭here needs to be actual power for these communities to come to the table,鈥� says Lyons, 鈥淸because] historically folks that come from traditional and Indigenous communities, they have solutions and have learned to work with the land.鈥� 

Tan agrees, saying that what is needed is a 鈥渏ust transition鈥� away from fossil fuels. That transition must 鈥渃enter the voices of those most impacted,鈥� he adds. 鈥淸And it must include] deepening democracy and 鈥� turning to the voices and the knowledge who have the longest living relationships with the land.鈥�