On the second day of the climate conference (COP26) the political and economic princes will travel to Glasgow. British host Boris Johnson warned it was a minute before midnight to stop a climate catastrophe. He wants to advertise at the summit to accelerate the measures for climate protection. Ultimately, it will also be about phasing out coal and switching to e-mobility more quickly.
But if you look at how the decision-makers travel to Glasgow, you get the feeling that none of this applies to the beautiful and the rich.
400 private jets in two weeks
The British Newspaper “Daily Mail” published a map on Monday showing that 52 private jets flew to Glasgow on Sunday alone. The newspaper even estimates that up to 400 private jets will land in Glasgow during the two-week conference. According to the calculations – a pessimistic estimate – up to 13,000 tons of carbon dioxide will be emitted. By way of comparison: that is as much as 2,600 Swiss people together emit each year.
According to the Daily Mail, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was among the celebrities who are said to have traveled by private jet. Particularly hypocritical: Bezos, who regularly gives lectures on climate change himself, is said to have traveled from Turkey in his luxurious Gulfstream G650ER jet (cost: 60 million francs). There he celebrated Bill Gates’ 66th birthday on a superyacht. It goes without saying that he got onto the yacht by helicopter.
Biden also brings helicopters and “The Beast”
Prince Charles also traveled to Glasgow from the G20 summit in Rome on a “non-commercial” plane. A spokesman for the royal told the Daily Mail: “His Royal Highness has personally campaigned for a switch to sustainable fuel.” And further: The sustainable fuel will from now on be used whenever possible.
And then there are the heads of government: Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron, Joe Biden. US President Biden and his entourage alone are flying to the climate summit in four planes. On site, Biden will also have a helicopter and the presidential limousine, the Cadillac “The Beast”, and an armada of SUVs.
Thunberg: a million signatures
Among the around 28,000 people expected in Glasgow are numerous activists who want to protest on the streets for a more ambitious climate policy – including the world’s most prominent activist, 18-year-old Swede Greta Thunberg.
An open letter from leading activists around Thunberg to the leaders of the world found more than a million supporters in a short time. By Monday afternoon, almost 1.1 million people had signed the appeal published at the start of the world climate conference with their e-mail addresses. In this, Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate from Uganda, Dominika Lasota from Poland and Mitzi Tan from the Philippines call on the heads of state and government to finally tackle the climate crisis decisively and with immediate and drastic measures.
Survey among 92 climate experts
Many experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are pessimistic about the development of global warming. The journal reports “Nature” according to a survey of 233 authors from the last IPCC report in August. Of the 92 scientists who answered the question, about 60 percent assumed that the earth will warm up by at least 3 degrees by the end of the century compared to the time before industrialization.
A good 20 percent of the scientists considered it likely that the goal of limiting global warming to a maximum of 2 degrees will still be achieved. 4 percent even thought a limit of 1.5 degrees was likely. The magazine stresses that the survey is not representative. (oco / SDA)