Bad timing for COP 26. 1,500 NGOs have called for the postponement of the UN global climate conference scheduled for November in Glasgow, Scotland. “With only two months to go, it is evident that a safe, inclusive and just global climate conference is impossible, given the failure to support access to vaccines for thousands of people in the world. poor countries, rising costs of travel and accommodation and uncertainty about the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic, ”writes the Climate Action Network, which counts among its ranks Greenpeace, WWF, Action Aid, Oxfam or again Amnesty International.
“An in-person COP in early November would de facto exclude many government delegates, civil society activists and journalists, especially from southern countries many of which are on the UK’s ‘Covid’ red list,” the organizations continue in a press release denouncing this “exclusion” in discussions on subjects of capital importance for the future of humanity, in particular for the poorest countries, on the front line against global warming. “This call for the postponement of COP26 does not in any way mean a postponement of urgent climate action or a boycott of climate discussions”, specifies the group.
Access to vaccination facilitated for participants
At the end of June, the British government, in charge of this COP26 which is to bring together thousands of people from October 31 to November 12, and the UN announced that they would facilitate access to vaccination against Covid-19 for participants who wished. But at this stage, this vaccination has not yet started.
The British government assured Tuesday that all those who had requested it – without specifying the number – would receive their first dose “this week”, and that with a period of four weeks between the two doses, the delegates would be vaccinated d ‘here the start of the conference.
“Climate change does not take a vacation”,
“COP26 has already been postponed for a year and we know only too well that climate change does not take a break,” commented COP26 President Alok Sharma. “The recent IPCC report (the UN climate experts, editor’s note) highlights why the COP26 must take place in November, to allow world leaders to unite and set decisive commitments to tackle climate change “, He added, assuring that everyone was working” tirelessly “to allow a meeting accessible to all.
While delegates from countries classified in the red Covid zone will have to spend ten days in quarantine for the unvaccinated, and five days for the vaccinated, the British government notably announced on Tuesday funding for stays in hotels for these quarantines.