Cop26: Sharma’s claim bankers are ‘new Swampys’ is appropriation, says activist | Cop26

Alok Sharma, the UK cabinet minister and president of the Cop26 summit, has been accused of appropriating the climate activism movement after he told conference delegates “you are the new Swampys”.Opening the summit’s finance day, which aims to channel cash towards transitioning global economies to net zero carbon emissions, Sharma recalled climate protests of the 1990s.He compared financiers and politicians with Dan Hooper, nicknamed Swampy, who became a household name in 1996 after his fierce campaigning to stop new road projects.Sharma said: “When I started my career in finance in the 1990 in the City, there was a guy called Swampy – some of you may recall him? He spent his time occupying trees and tunnels and he was the main face of climate action in the United Kingdom.“But today the Swampys of the world are all around us, in boardrooms, in government departments, in multilateral development banks and trading floors all around the world – you, my friends, are the new Swampys, so be proud.“That means finance is increasingly flowing to climate action. Delivering the Paris agreement requires nothing short of aligning all financial flows with clean and resilient development, and of course we know that the devastation caused by the pandemic makes this all the more urgent.”Swampy is currently spending his 20th day in a tunnel in Wendover, Buckinghamshire, in an effort to block the progress of the HS2 rail project.His fellow campaigner Dr Larch Maxey, who is on bail for alleged offences relating to his protests against HS2, said: “Unfortunately everyone is not down that tunnel with Swampy.”He continued: “To say we are all Swampys is appropriation, it is attempting to take resistance, to take the truth and commercialise it and commodify it for the corporate agenda. If only what he was saying was true. If only we were all Swampys – then we wouldn’t be in the greatest threat humanity has ever faced.”He said world leaders were still trying to “coax and cajole” big industry into action, rather than leading by example.“[Sharma] is trying to say ‘everything is OK, folks, you just trust us, the experts, the bankers, the politicians, and your future is safe’,” he said. “Well, it’s not – the future is in danger because of their actions over the last 30 years and because they are carrying on.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/03/cop26-sharmas-claim-bankers-are-new-swampys-is-appropriation-says-activist