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Streets Filled With Chauffeur Driven Cars With Engines On While World Leaders Discuss Climate Change At COP26

Streets Filled With Chauffeur Driven Cars With Engines On While World Leaders Discuss Climate Change At COP26

Some social media users have called out the 'hypocrisy'

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

The streets surrounding the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow are packed with chauffeur-driven cars, with some even having their engines idling.

Channel 4 News correspondent Ciaran Jenkins shared a short clip of the streets near the venue where the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) is being held, calling it an 'interesting look for a climate conference'.

Social media users reacted with shock to the tweet, with one person replying: "This is why we won't get an agreement. They just don't get it!"

Another suggested a better way of doing things, writing: "Train station is closer to the events than those cars. Taxis would be better than having cars idle for hours.

"There is public bike hire in Glasgow and it's a dry day. City centre is less than 30 mins walk, the main hotels are even closer. They should make an effort."

A third person commented: "Nothing new. Just a bunch of hypocrites living at the expenses of others, through guilt and virtue signalling."

The event, which aims to secure global net-zero emissions by 2050, has previously been criticised for flying in world leaders via private planes to attend.

However, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has defended the move.

She told BBC Breakfast: "I think everybody who has ever done a Zoom call knows that they are quite useful for some things but when you really get into crunch negotiations, when you want to look somebody in the eye and talk to them face-to-face you do need to meet in person, and this is really critical.

"World leaders are going to have to make some tough decisions about what's going on in their own countries, they're going to have to commit to things they didn't necessarily want to when they arrived at the conference and that's why it's really important that we do have people face-to-face."

Alamy

The COP26 summit has brought together leaders from across the globe to 'accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change'.

But the UK government hasn't been particularly optimistic about a positive outcome, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson warning the summit has a serious risk of failure due to other countries refusing to restrict global temperature rises to below 1.5°C.

Speaking yesterday, he said: "Currently, let's be in no doubt, we are not going to hit it and we have to be honest with ourselves."

He added: "It's nip and tuck, it's touch and go. We could do it, or we could fail by the middle of November."

Featured Image Credit: Alamy

Topics: UK News, climate change, Politics