Done And Dusted - Biggest COP Ever, What Now?

 DIASPORA DISCOURSE 

with Davison Muropa

COP26 is now done and dusted. With a provisional total of 39,509 delegates, COP26 was the biggest COP ever since the inception of this august gathering 26 years ago. It tops Paris COP21 (30,372) and Copenhagen COP15 (27,301). 

I suppose that is why in the few weeks before COP26,  the UK administration hurriedly made the red list miraculously disappear to allow even vana Zimbabwe forget Covid 19 and attend. Yes Zimbabwe needed to be at the table listening. Muranda pano rangwa mwana washe, terera. 

With a total of 129 delegates, Zimbabwe was far from being the largest delegation from Africa; DRC had 373, Ghana had 337, Kenya had 308, Uganda had 219; though Nigeria had 117, Mozambique had 75, Zambia had 60 and South Africa had 56. 

But overall the largest delegation was Brazil’s 479 followed by Turkey at 376.

Host UK who held the presidency had 230 delegates. 

But these kind of gatherings can be all show and no substance, the blah, blah,blah that Greta Thunberg talks about. As the delegates higgled and haggled, the language of the final draft agreement was both beefed up and watered down. There were some big beasts in there just bent on safeguarding their own interests and weakening the agreement. May they see the light. 

Apa vedu maChurch delegates were busy visiting fellow Bishops in England ostensibly to present petitions against sanctions, not engaging in the discussions at hand. Chirudzii, kusiya dare uchizviendesa wega kunofuna mbudzi! 

We wait now to see if the world now gets it and starts to de-escalate the damage of the fossil - fuel driven industrialisation of the last two or three centuries. 

Clean energy has to power the new development over the next centuries and man must now understand that the world belongs to all; humans, trees, grass, rivers, lakes, dams animals on land, fish in the sea, birds in the air. Climate change has no favourites!

But man is the inn keeper. Adam (and Eve) ita basa kuchengeta bindu iri. 

Till next week, be blessed.

*Davison Muropa is a Zimbabwean living in Birmingham, UK.