COP26 is an opportunity for our movement 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 the climate emergency 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 effects.

What’s it got to do with firefighters and the FBU?

Firefighters are on the front line of tackling the climate emergency. Climate change is increasing the risk of wildfires, such as grassland and forest fires and floods, including from surface water, rivers and the 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 has been proactive in raising the impact that the climate emergency will have on fire and rescue services (FRSs). 

We have raised it directly with FRSs and 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 has been well made that firefighters are the primary emergency responders to severe climate events 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 Britain 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 with around 1,000 people eventually being evacuated. 

The increase in these types of calls can also be very challenging for firefighters working within the operational fire control rooms as they handle each flooding-related call over and above the other emergency calls they receive.

Flooding can also delay the response of the fire and rescue service attending emergency incidents due to the severe impact it has on roads and travel. 

Firefighters have a “can-do” attitude and instinctively want to help people. It can become incredibly frustrating when the infrastructure all over the country is not capable of meeting the demands of the climate emergency which in turn can delay a firefighter’s response to emergency incidents. 

While 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 emergency. Over the last decade, we have seen a loss of over 11,000 front-line firefighter jobs in the UK. 

We’ve seen the closure of operational fire control rooms and fire stations and fire budgets slashed by Westminster. 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 Cop26 supporting the many campaigns and ask those who are able to, to join us on Saturday November 6 for the Global Day of Action in Glasgow. 

We will have the FBU fire appliance on the march from Kelvingrove to Glasgow Green and will be involved in other Global Day of Action demonstrations across cities around the UK.

We will also be launching our FBU film at a special Cop26 event on Monday November 8 1.30pm-3pm at the Websters Theatre, 416 Great Western Road, Glasgow. 

Speakers include FBU general secretary Matt Wrack and myself, plus contributions from front-line firefighters tackling the climate emergency on the ground and in operational fire control rooms.

If we demand climate justice then we must demand social justice too. You cannot have one without the other and that message will be delivered loud and clear during Cop26.

Denise Christie is FBU regional secretary in Scotland.