After four years of fighting for bushfire survivors in Australia, I decided to travel to Glasgow for the COP26 climate summit, to put a human face on the climate crisis.
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Arriving at the conference centre was an adventure. After negotiating the crowds, testing, ID and security checks, I took my lunch to the Australian Pavilion and propped my modest Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action placard against the table leg.
There was a bit of a stir as political staffers arrived to set up for the arrival of the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction.
I put my sandwich down and picked up my placard to listen.
Nothing happened.
Then the whole shebang packed up and I was informed: "The Minister isn't coming. No one is coming".
It seems my presence was perceived to be a 'protest' and had caused Angus Taylor's ministerial announcement to be cancelled.
So why come here, so far from sunny Tathra?
Every single Australian is now dealing with the effects of a warming climate.
Ordinary Australians are watching their homes burn down, losing everything. Even more are breathing the awful smoke, suffering the effects for months after the air clears.
For three days a massive Santos exhibit has dominated the Australian Pavilion. I feel unwelcome here, like an ex turning up at an engagement party.
Perhaps I'm a reminder of the many people whose homes have burned down while fossil fuel companies reap the profits of the emissions intensive industry.
The Santos stand has now been packed away and I'm sitting in its place, telling the stories of survivors to a passing stream of journalists, academics, other survivors and ordinary people.
Mr Taylor, turns tail when he sees me here, day after day, waiting for better news, waiting for a government that values my life and your life, above the interests of the fossil fuel industry.
As I write they are preparing for another speech.
I'm still sitting here, my Bushfire Survivors For Climate Action sticker on my laptop lid the only allowable sign of the 3000 families who lost their homes over the 2019-20 firestorm, of the billion animals annihilated, the trauma and anxiety of every Australian who gets nervous every time a warm wind blows.
The ministerial minders are nervous. They think I might cause a scene. What a disaster that would be.
- Jo Dodds is President of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action.
