This action is one of several demonstrations organized by Indigenous activists in Glasgow during this year’s UNFCCC’s COP26 climate summit.
Edinburgh, Scotland— On Tuesday, November 9th at 11:00 AM GMT, the Indigenous Environmental Network, Cheyenne River Grassroots Collective, Native Movement and NDN Collective, will deliver a letter with demands for President Biden and his administration to follow through on his promise to ban federal fossil fuel leasing and drilling on public land and waters. In addition, activists are demanding a ban on fossil fuel exports and that the President declare a climate emergency, which can grant him statutory powers to address the crisis.
This action follows the first week of talks between world leaders in Glasgow during the UNFCCC’s COP26 summit to address the present and looming climate disaster. However, Indigenous groups are wary that President Biden’s visit to COP26 will bear any fruit to protect public lands and mitigate the climate emergency, especially since his administration is planning to auction over 80 million acres of offshore drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico on November 17th, just five days after the conclusion of the yearly climate conference. That does not include the 700,000 additional acres of onshore lands for oil and gas drilling that will be auctioned at a later date as reported on the U.S. Interior Department’s website.
A replica of a fracking tower wrapped in a giant red bow will be lifted at the US Embassy not long before Indigenous Peoples publicly present their demand letter addressed to the President of the United States, the US State Department and the Army Corps of Engineers.
WHERE: Consulate General of the United States, 3 Regent Terrace, Edinburgh EH7 5BW, United Kingdom
