Cop26 and opening to postcapitalist climate politics, religion, and desire

ABSTRACT Climate change represents a set of emergencies for humanity. Many geographers have argued that in order to repair and avert the damage that these confluent emergencies have and may-yet cause, a postcapitalist society is necessary. However, strategies for how this might be achieved often forgo any consideration of desire, which is problematic given the influence that desire holds over the ‘popularity’ towards which a postcapitalist politics may aspire. This paper reports on a psychogeographic walk to a church in Glasgow, taken by the author during the COP26 Youth March. Reflections on the role of the church amidst the roil of protest allows the author to imagine new ways in which movements striving for a climate-conscious postcapitalist future might engage with religion and spirituality in order to direct popular desires away from and beyond further climate breakdown.