You might have heard a lot about COP26 over the last few weeks, months and even years. Hosted in Glasgow, the climate change summit will see the world’s attention turn to the UK and Scotland in particular.
But it maybe isn’t so clear what COP26 actually is, and how the issues it will cover relate to firefighters.
What is COP26?
COP26 is the 26th ‘Conference of Parties’. The Conference of Parties (COP) is essentially all of the world’s countries getting together to discuss climate change progress and agree further steps. The Conference of Parties tend to happen annually, and don’t always end in agreement, with late night sessions towards the end of the conference common in past years.
A lot of people think that this year’s COP is a make-or-break moment for bringing climate change under control.
What else is happening at the conference?
Big conversations on climate adaption are also likely to happen, with the conference’s website stating that work on protecting ecosystems, and “building defences, warning systems and resilient infrastructure and agriculture to avoid loss of homes, livelihoods and even lives” needs to take place.
The conference is also an opportunity for the FBU to demonstrate our solidarity with working people and their communities around the world and to organise together to create the just and green world we want and need, to allow us to live safely and fairly.
We must also be fully active in the campaign that COP26 must be a focus to organise against climate crisis in solidarity with all working people. The climate crisis is a crisis of social justice, with those who have done least to cause the crisis and who are least able to address it, facing the worst impacts.
What’s it got to do with firefighters and the FBU?
Firefighters are on the frontline of tackling the climate crisis. Climate change is increasing the risk of wildfires, such as grassland and forest fires, and floods, including from surface water, rivers and sea. It will also affect the supply and availability of water and may give rise to more extreme weather events.
These hazards will have implications for the working conditions of firefighters. The climate emergency will require significant changes to appliances, to the equipment available to firefighters, and to training. We will also need greater awareness of firefighters’ health implications, greater pumping capability and water use, and increased capacity within our operational fire control rooms.
The fire and rescue service needs the staff, resources and equipment to tackle the impact of this climate emergency. There is no logic to job cuts and shutting fire stations and control rooms when these risks are likely to increase in the years ahead
Firefighters tackling climate change
The FBU in Scotland has been proactive in raising this with politicians as far back as 2016 when I organised and chaired an FBU fringe meeting at the Scottish Green Party Conference titled “Climate Change – Key Issues for the Fire and Rescue Service”.
The point was well made that firefighters are the primary emergency responders to climate matters that affect communities, and that the FBU is committed to political and industrial campaigning on the climate emergency. The union campaigns within the fire and rescue service and works with others in our movement to tackle one of the most fundamental questions of our age.
Meanwhile, on the ground, firefighters all over the UK are engaged with the practical battle against the climate crisis. , For example, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service received 350 flooding-related calls over just one week at the end of 2015 and start of 2016, with around 1,000 people eventually being evacuated.
Whilst it is right that we are proud of our work here and at incidents like it, they should also serve as very real reminders that climate change is here, and is affecting our lives and our work today.
Protect firefighter jobs
Our fire and rescue services are not yet fully prepared for the enormous implications of the climate crisis. Over the last decade, we have seen a loss of over 11000 frontline firefighter jobs in the UK. We’ve seen the closure of operational fire control rooms and fire stations and fire budgets slashed year on year. There is no logic to these cuts when climate risks are likely to increase in the years ahead. The FBU will continue to be front and centre in our campaigns to reverse these attacks on our profession. We will be front and centre at COP 26 supporting the many campaigns and ask our members to join us in demanding a just and green world for everyone.
