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In a matter of weeks, an estimated 20,000 ministers, activists and executives from nearly every country in the world will descend upon Glasgow to determine how to make progress on climate change.
Yet the Marshall Islands chief negotiator still does not know how many people from his country came with him. An activist from Kenya had no idea when to vaccinate or be vaccinated against Covid-19, while another activist from Mexico flew to the United States to get a dose. And British government hosts are still trying to get Scotland’s health labs ready to handle coronavirus tests in the event of a pandemic.
The climate summit, known as the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties, or COP26, will be one of the largest international meetings held during the Covid-19 pandemic when it begins on 31 October. At least 100 presidents and prime ministers, including Francis and US President Biden.
The stakes are extremely high.
The world’s biggest polluting countries have been scrutinized to show whether they can do what is necessary to fend off the worst effects of climate change. Cases of coronavirus continue to rise. And most of the summit attendees will come from countries where vaccines are still not widely available, especially in the global south. globally, less than half of all adults are vaccinated against Covid-19, showing vaccine disparities.
“Organizing a COP is already a huge, huge challenge,” said Alok Sharma, a senior British politician responsible for this conference, in a recent interview in Washington DC.
Despite some calls to hold or postpone the conference virtually, as at last year’s meeting, Mr. Sharma is adamant that leaders should meet in person to address the climate crisis. He promised that the UK would try to run the mass meeting in a way that minimized the chance of infection. But there are still risks.
Conference organizers said that vaccines are encouraged but not required at meetings of the United Nations, which are held under the auspices of annual climate talks. There is also no way to verify whether vaccine certificates are legitimate. The UK has offered free vaccines to anyone who wants it, but many say they haven’t received them yet.
Alex Saier, spokesman for the United Nations climate agency, said via email that his office is working with the British government and the World Health Organization to develop health protocols.
“For the health and safety of everyone, the collective decision was to strongly encourage all participants to get vaccinated before coming to the COP, but not to require it because some participants had medical or other issues that prevented them from getting vaccinated,” said Mr. Saier. said.
In any case, presidents and prime ministers cannot be asked to be quarantined due to diplomatic immunity provisions. And so Mr. Sharma’s team relies on good behavior.
Delegates will have to sign a code of conduct stipulating that they will follow public health protocols to enter the main venue, including daily coronavirus testing and wearing a mask when walking in the hallways. Negotiators, who normally spend hours in windowless rooms discussing commas and verbs in official documents, will also be encouraged to wear their masks.
Leaders from environmental groups and other nonprofits who typically monitor the negotiations will have limited access to the rooms where these sessions are held. Each nation is told to reduce the size of its delegation.
“We want to ensure a safe incident,” said Mr. Sharma.
Nearly 1,000 people have requested the vaccine, and Mr. Sharma said “several hundred” vaccines have been made through the British government’s program, though his office did not say exactly how many. The UK encourages delegates to receive vaccines administered by their national programmes, but this was not possible for some participants.
Take the example of Kenyan Nobert Nyandire. He applied when the UK offered the vaccine.
It was in July. Still waiting.
Mr. Nyandire is from the East African chapter of the Climate Action Network, which represents over 1,000 nonprofits.
The United Nations said in early September that the vaccines provided to him by the UK would soon begin in his country. Three weeks later, the United Nations recommended that Kenya rely on its national immunization programme. He says communication has been confusing and although there are no guarantees he still hopes to find the vaccine.
Maria Reyes, an activist friend in Mexico, was worried that the vaccine offer from the UK would not arrive in time. He flew to Los Angeles, got his Johnson & Johnson dose at the airport, and flew home the same day, dazed by the side effects.
“Honestly, it was horrible,” said Ms Reyes, a member of the Fridays for the Future movement. Like Mr Nyandire, he was told to get vaccinated through his country’s national programme. But Ms. Reyes is 19, and in the small town of Coronango in central Mexico, a limited number of vaccines were available only for older people.
Responding to the confusion, United Nations officials noted that the UK was running the vaccine program and directed questions to the British organizers.
“I’m sure anyone who wants to get vaccinated will get vaccinated,” Mr. Sharma insisted.
Delegates from countries placed by the UK, whether vaccinated or not its “red list” must be quarantined on arrival due to high infection rates. Like Ms. Reyes, those who are vaccinated should be isolated for 5 days, and those who are not vaccinated for 10 days.
Under pressure from civil society groups, who argued that the cost of quarantine is high and the conference should be postponed, the UK said it would cover the costs of quarantine hotels.
Meanwhile, everyone attending the conference is expected to show a negative result every day from a self-administered rapid coronavirus test.
For 20,000 delegates over 14 days, this means potentially 280,000 rapid test kits to be distributed to hotels and private apartments hosting delegates. Anyone who tests positive will be asked to immediately perform a PCR test, which must be isolated and processed by a laboratory. If lab capacity is available, results may take more than 24 hours.
However, delegates must reach Scotland first.
Tina Stege, chief negotiator for the Republic of the Marshall Islands, a country whose existence is threatened by rising sea levels, is trying to navigate air travel during the Covid era.
Flights outside of the Marshall Islands are less frequent due to the pandemic, and getting to Scotland requires navigating the quarantine regulations of various transiting countries. After the delegates return, they will be subject to the Marshall Islands’ strict two-week quarantine for international travelers.
The only thing Miss Stege knows for sure is that her country’s delegation will be less than in past years.
“It’s really crazy to tell you right now, in just 30 days, we’re still trying to figure this out and figure out exactly how to get it to work,” said Ms. Stege. “We implemented plans A, B, and C.”
There is another uncertainty: public transport, bars and hotels in Glasgow require customers to wear masks, there are exceptions, such as when eating, drinking and dancing. Unlike the Tokyo Olympics, where the athletes are trapped inside the protective bubble of the Olympic Village, COP26 participants will disperse to Glasgow.
Inevitably, the question arose: Do tens of thousands of people need to come together to slow climate change?
Earlier this year, the Swedish government commissioned a study that looked at whether the technology could allow future UN climate summits to be held online.
“This is not going to go away with Covid,” said Richard JT Klein, senior research fellow at the Stockholm Environment Institute who led the research. “Even if we could all meet face-to-face again, the question we must ask ourselves is: ‘Do we want to meet 30,000 people again in one place?’
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