COP26 live updates: Greta Thunberg to lead climate protests in Glasgow

3 yıl önce

Young activists will be the focus of the United Nations climate summit on Friday, both within the halls of the conference center and in protests on the streets of Glasgow.

Has COP26 been inclusive or exclusive?

By Sarah Kaplan and William Booth4:01 a.m.

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At global climate summit COP26 on Nov. 1, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said the impacts of climate change were an existential threat to island nations. (The Washington Post)

British COP26 President Alok Sharma promised the Glasgow, Scotland, summit would be “the most inclusive COP ever.” Activists have countered that it is turning out to be the most exclusive. So which is it?

This year’s event in Glasgow could be the biggest COP since the meetings began. More than 39,000 people have registered for the event, including roughly 21,700 representatives from official national delegations, 14,000 observers from activist groups and nonprofits, and some 3,700 members of the media.

This provisional list of registrants from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change does not represent the final tally for the summit; an official attendance list will be published when the meeting ends.

But if the numbers hold, they would make COP26 even bigger than the 2015 meeting in Paris, which some 30,300 people attended.

But an analysis by the U.K.-based website Carbon Brief reveals inequalities. As in past years, the largest delegations disproportionately come from Europe and North America. And, of course, this year the pandemic presented an additional layer of safety and logistical challenges.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised to provide vaccine doses to all attendees who could not get them in their home nations. A spokesman from the Cabinet Office said doses went out to recipients in 70 nations, but he declined to say how many people had received them.

At least some delegates complained that delays and disorganization on the part of the British government made it difficult to get fully vaccinated before the conference began. Changing coronavirus entry and quarantine rules further hindered the ability plan ahead. And anyone booking lodging in the weeks ahead of the conference would have found that many of the remaining options could be had only at exorbitant rates.

Still, COP26 has proved once against that you don’t have to be from one of the world’s largest economies to have an impact. The most powerful speech? That’s arguably the one from Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

Why are bin collectors and street cleaners striking with Greta Thunberg?

By Karla Adam10:04 p.m.

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Environmentally conscious visitors in Glasgow, Scotland, for COP26 may have begun to notice an environmentally unfriendly sight: Overflowing trash cans, or rubbish bins, depending on where you’re from.

Trash collectors are engaged in a dispute over pay and working conditions with the city council and have been out on strike since Nov. 1, taking advantage of the moment to get the world’s attention and put pressure on the city during COP. City officials have been scrambling to bring in contractors while the standoff continues.

The workers appealed to Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg for support. And she in turn invited them to join her for Friday’s climate march. “Climate justice also means social justice and that we leave no one behind,” she wrote.

Enthusiastic workers RSVPed in a video featuring an inflatable rat. Chris Mitchell, from the GMB union, which represents the workers, said: “Camaraderie and solidarity from the cleansing workers in Glasgow. Stand with us.”