In social networks, users exposed the protagonists of COP26. The images range from leaders seemingly sleeping during the event, to personalities traveling in sumptuous caravans of cars and private jets, which contrasts with their speeches of seeking to reduce CO2 emissions that are concentrated in the atmosphere and cause global warming.
The city of Glasgow, in Scotland, is hosting hundreds of world leaders in a new attempt to tackle the climate crisis. Only the first days of COP26 gave a lot to talk about, especially on the Internet.
At the event, aimed at finding solutions to combat climate change, eyes are on world leaders and their environmental commitments. In social networks, Internet users, tired of unfulfilled promises, pressed for concrete measures and exposed the discourse of their leaders, their behaviors and their commitments to the environment.
Criticism of President Biden for his carbon footprint
For example, one of the great questions was the president of the United States, Joe Biden, on account of images of the extensive caravan of vehicles in which he moved through the city of Glasgow.
If transportation is one of the main causes of the emission of carbon dioxide, which makes our planet warm, Internet users did not explain how it is that Biden used so many vehicles to get to an event where precisely how to reduce warming is discussed global. According to local media, the convoy was made up of about 20 vehicles.
Before Glasgow, Biden had already given something to talk about in Rome, where he was for the G20 meeting.
There it was transported aboard an even larger caravan and in which it is believed, there were more than 80 vehicles. The truth is that it is not known how many of them were electric or hybrid, or if all operate on fuel.
The 400 private jets that traveled to COP26
But the discontent doesn’t just revolve around Biden. Under the label of “eco-hypocrites”, Internet users criticized the leaders, executives and other personalities who traveled to COP26 in their own planes.
Citing official sources, the Scottish newspaper ‘Sunday Mail’ reported during the weekend leading up to the summit that some 400 private jets would land in Scotland. According to the European Federation for Transport and Environment, this type of aircraft has a disproportionate impact on the planet, since in just one hour of flight they can emit two tons of CO2, while an average person in Europe emits 8.2 tons of CO2 in a year.
World leaders and business execs have been flying in and out of Glasgow this week on private jets🛩️🏴# COP26
Producing more CO2 than 1600 Scots burn through in a year
Not a good example when trying to save the 🌎
See why private jets are so bad? 👇👇https://t.co/Y7XKRuniYG pic.twitter.com/KFCR5hLlPO
– Transport & Environment (@transenv) November 3, 2021
The group estimates that these trips will release some 13,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, which is more than 1,600 Scots produce a year.
Joe Biden and Boris Johnson, apparently asleep
At the summit, expectant, the attendees kept their eyes open, although some, not so much. On his Twitter account a journalist from the ‘Washington Post’ posted a video of President Joe Biden in which he is apparently seen falling asleep during the opening speeches of COP26.
On the other hand, the cameras would have captured the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, in the same situation. However, it is not clear if he really fell asleep or if the image was captured during a blink, since in a sequence of photographs he is seen attentive.
Both publications aroused criticism from both their political opponents and activists who questioned whether the leaders are really interested in what is happening to the planet. Others defended them, assuring that they had had an extensive day during the G20.
Young activists confront Colombian President Iván Duque
Some went further and directly confronted their leaders, as happened with Colombian President Iván Duque.
A group of young Colombians demanded that @IvanDuque tell the truth about your actions with the Escazú Agreement. Faced with the debate and being surprised at his lies, Duque flees terrified and scared. # COP26 pic.twitter.com/GYPVQtuplz
– María José Pizarro Rodríguez (@PizarroMariaJo) November 3, 2021
In a video that circulates on social networks, the claim of a group of his compatriots became evident, demanding that the president urgently process the Escazú treaty. A multilateral agreement in Latin America and the Caribbean aimed, among other things, at guaranteeing the protection of environmental leaders. This was signed in 2018 but the Colombian Congress has not ratified it.
A report by the NGO Global Witness revealed that, in 2020, 227 environmental defenders were killed, and that Colombia registered the highest number with 65 cases.
On the other hand, in an open letter in which the failure of governments to reduce carbon emissions is described as “treason”, young people demand concrete measures.
It is an initiative of the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, together with other youth leaders and in which they ask, for example, to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, stop the investment of fossil fuels and finance the most vulnerable countries. The petition is online, through the Avaaz platform and anyone can join. The number of signatures grows every second.
# COP26 has been named the must excluding COP ever.
This is no longer a climate conference.
This is a Global North greenwash festival.
A two week celebration of business as usual and blah blah blah.
– Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) November 4, 2021
In conclusion, there have been more questions than praise for this summit, which activists have referred to as a festival of “green washing”, a term that could be translated as “green washing” or “eco-whitening” and is used to refer to to those who show themselves to the world as defenders of the environment, with the sole objective of cleaning their image.
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