VISITORS to the major COP26 climate talks in Glasgow today will see a Union flag flying high over the main entrance, but no Saltire.
Photographs from the large queues into the COP26 venues show the main entrance decorated with a Union flag flying above the crowds, as well as the flag of the United Nations.
World leaders are gathering at the SEC today as the two-week UN climate talks kick off, with countries facing pressure to commit to further tackling dangerous temperature increases.
READ MORE: COP26: Nicola Sturgeon to 'catch up' with activist Greta Thunberg later today
The talks in Glasgow are seen as the moment when countries must deliver on pledges made in the accord agreed in Paris six years ago, to limit temperature rises to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to curb warming to 1.5C – beyond which the worst impacts will be felt.
Scotland is officially represented by the UK Government and Boris Johnson at the event, although First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is attending and speaking on the role of states and regions in tackling climate change this morning.
Scotland is also one of the five co-chairs of the Under2 Coalition, a group of state and regional governments who work to keep global warming to under 2 degrees.
The country also stepped in to pay for the COP26 Youth Conference when the UK Government decided not to, with Sturgeon noting that young people offer some of the “strongest voices” on climate issues.
In 2019 Boris Johnson told attendees of the Conservative Party that he didn’t want Sturgeon “anywhere near” the global summit.
At the event, not long after he was elected Conservative leader, he said: "I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We make sure – with every policy we pursue, with every investment we make in Scotland, then we put a Union flag on it.
“For instance, the COP26 climate change summit that’s going to be held ... the leaders of the entire world will come to Glasgow.
"I guess I don’t mind seeing a Saltire or two on that summit, but I want to see a Union flag – I don’t want to see Nicola Sturgeon anywhere near it."
The First Minister’s spokesman said at the time that people would be “deeply embarrassed” to hear the PM speak “so childishly”.
Asked about the comments on Sky News this morning, Sturgeon said COP26 is about “trying to save the planet, not about what flags are flying”.
“There’s more than 100 countries going to be here over the next couple of weeks, there will be lots of flags flying.”
“It’s what happens here that happens most … Boris Johnson and I will cross swords on a whole range of issues, not least the future of Scotland when I think that Scotland should be an independent country, round the negotiating table at summits like this in our own right, but that’s not for today and tomorrow. We should all be focused on what needs to be done to make this summit a success … the future of our planet depends on it.”
Recently the Prime Minister U-turned on his 2019 claims – but continued to downplay the role of Scotland’s First Minister at the Glasgow summit.
“Well of course there’s going to be a role for Nicola, for Mark Drakeford, for everybody in the COP26,” he told the BBC.
“It’s a huge undertaking by the whole of the UK,” he added. “Every part of the UK is now working together. What we’ve got to do is we’ve got to lead the world to get everyone to commit to net-zero by 2050.”
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