Hundreds of thousands of people are understood to have turned out for climate protests across the world. In Glasgow alone, organizers say around 250,000 people gathered for demonstrations.
CNN has yet to verify those numbers with police, however, teams on the ground saw jam-packed protests with people from different social, culture and political group to send out one message to world leaders: The time to act is now.
As groups of protesters gathered in the city's Glasgow Green on Saturday afternoon, where climate activists Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate were preparing to address the crowd
"Do you believe in leaders or in us?" Indigenous activist asks protesters
From CNN's Ivana Kottasová and Kara Fox
Members of the Indigenous Climate Action group from north Canada joined the People's March in Glasgow, singing: "We don't need your extractive industries," as they marched through Glasgow's streets.
Indigenous people are "among the first to face the direct impacts of global warming on the ecosystems or landscapes they inhabit, owing also to their dependence upon, and close relationship with the environment and its resources," according to the United Nations.
"Although they account for only around 5 percent of the world’s population, they effectively manage an estimated 20-25 per cent of the Earth’s land surface. This land coincides with areas that hold 80 per cent of the planet’s biodiversity and about 40 per cent of all terrestrial protected areas and ecologically intact landscapes. Indigenous peoples therefore play a key role in efforts to protect the planet and biodiversity," the UN said in April.
On Saturday afternoon, activists from Manga Indigent, a collective of groups and communities from indigenous nations throughout the American continent, spoke at Glasgow Green to scores of protesters.
"Do you believe in leaders or in us?" a Mega Indigent, activist said.
“Just as our ancestors defended the lands, we will continue,” they added.
Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, a longtime climate hawk in the Senate, told COP26 attendees he’s confident Congress will pass President Joe Biden’s climate and economic bill – fulfilling Biden’s commitment to slash greenhouse gases.
“I am telling every representative of every country I am meeting here, we will get this job done,” Markey said. “I am very confident that we will be able to pass the Build Back Better bill. I am very confident that the US will fulfill its commitment to reduce greenhouse gases by 50% by the year 2030.”
Markey’s message to those at COP was that America was back and fully engaged in the climate space, after the Trump administration pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
“We are going to deliver on our promises that you can turn the page on the Trump era,” Markey said. “We’re putting these [clean energy] tax breaks on the book for a 10-year period. We’re going to act on methane. There will be a climate bank inside this legislation for $22 billion that will unleash approximately $200 billion worth of private sector investment in new clean energy technologies.”
Markey spoke at COP26 hours after the US House passed Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill, sending it to the president’s desk. But Congress still hasn’t passed Biden’s remaining $1.75 trillion climate and economic bills, and a vote on that will likely be delayed until before Thanksgiving.
House progressive lawmakers said they had secured a commitment from moderates they would vote for the major climate and economic legislation, but some climate advocates are uneasy.
Ramon Cruz, the president of the Sierra Club, told Markey at Saturday’s COP26 event that the House vote on the infrastructure bill was not “ideal” from his point of view.
“The events of last night in the US, unfortunately, are not ideal for us,” Cruz said. “It had been the intent of the Progressive Caucus members to go together hand in hand with the legislation that is really transformational – that changes people’s lives.”
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