Campaigners call for postponement of UN Climate Summit, blaming UK for vaccine delays

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More than 1,500 civil society groups have joined a growing chorus demanding the postponement of the United Nations climate change conference on the grounds that the UK government has been too slow to provide vaccines to delegates.

The Conference of the Parties, or COP26, which was to be held in Glasgow in early November, has already been delayed for a year by the pandemic.

Greenpeace added its weight to the wide range of climate change action groups, calling on Tuesday to postpone the summit, arguing it would otherwise risk excluding participants from developing countries. More than 195 countries were expected to send delegates to the event.

Tasneem Essop, head of the Climate Action Network, said many countries affected by climate change would be excluded from the COP26 talks if it proceeded on the current schedule.

Delegates from developing countries may not be able to attend due to lack of access to Covid-19 vaccines and costs associated with complying with hotel quarantine rules, she said.

Looking at the current schedule of COP26, it is difficult to imagine that there can be equitable participation of the countries of the South under safe conditions and therefore it should be postponed until it is possible, said Essop.

Climate talks are important, but in the current context of vaccine apartheid, they simply cannot continue, she added.

In response, the UK organizing team said they were still working hard to help all delegates attend the November meeting and would pay for hotel quarantines, but did not explicitly rule out another delay.

COP26 has already been postponed for a year, and we are all too aware that climate change has not taken a break, said Alok Sharma, president of COP26. The recent IPCC report highlights why COP26 must take place in November to allow world leaders to come together and make decisive commitments to tackle climate change.

Sharma has said in the past that holding the event in person is critical to its success as it allows negotiators to reach deals more effectively.

The UK has pledged to provide vaccines to delegates who would not otherwise be able to get vaccinated. He says the first doses of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine will be given this week, followed by a second in four weeks, allowing full inoculation after six weeks. The conference is due to start in about seven weeks.

The goal of COP26 is to bring together almost every country in the world to iron out the parameters of the Paris climate agreement, a 2015 pact that aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius.

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COP meetings have already attracted more than 20,000 delegates, including government officials, journalists and civil society groups.

Preparations for the Glasgow summit have been hampered not only by the uncertainties of Covid but also by the limited availability of housing and security personnel.

Compared to other COPs, the 2021 event falls far short of providing logistical support to visiting government delegations, said a diplomat from a developing country involved in the preparations.

Dozens of heads of state, including President Joe Biden, are expected, posing a huge security challenge for the city.

The UN climate talks, which are held every year before the pandemic, have already seen last-minute changes: in 2019, the venue was moved from Santiago to Madrid at the last minute due to political protests in Chile.

However, not everyone agreed that a delay was preferable. The Climate Vulnerable Forum, representing more than 40 countries, said COP26 should go on because the issue of climate change cannot wait.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2021

Used with permission.

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