Starting on Sunday, world leaders, negotiators from 190 countries, British royals, official observers, journalists, activists, celebrities — and as many as 100,000 demonstrators — will descend on Glasgow, Scotland, to try to save the planet from runaway warming.
The COP26 climate summit, postponed last year because of the pandemic, is going forward despite a soaring spike of the coronavirus in Britain, where case levels now rival last winter’s peak.
The British and Scottish governments, serving as hosts, are expecting up to 30,000 official attendees — who will be meeting indoors, huddling in tense talks, for hours and hours a day, from Sunday to Nov. 12 and potentially longer. It will be the largest summit ever hosted in Britain. Organizers are scrambling to make sure the conference does not morph into a superspreader event.
“A lot of attendees are concerned, you could say, even anxious, about covid at the conference,”
The COP26 climate summit, postponed last year because of the pandemic, is going forward despite a soaring spike of the coronavirus in Britain, where case levels now rival last winter’s peak.
The British and Scottish governments, serving as hosts, are expecting up to 30,000 official attendees — who will be meeting indoors, huddling in tense talks, for hours and hours a day, from Sunday to Nov. 12 and potentially longer. It will be the largest summit ever hosted in Britain. Organizers are scrambling to make sure the conference does not morph into a superspreader event.
“A lot of attendees are concerned, you could say, even anxious, about covid at the conference,”
