Overseas delegates for the UN’s COP26 climate conference in Scotland will be subjected to more relaxed coronavirus travel rules than normal travellers, an official has confirmed.
Up to 25,000 government figures, media, and environmental campaigners from around the world will descend on Glasgow, Scotland, in the first two weeks of November for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson determined that, despite the ongoing Chinese coronavirus pandemic, a meeting in person would achieve more than an environmentally-friendly virtual summit to stop alleged manmade climate change.
Easing of restrictions for those attending the climate conference, many of whom will be flying to the UK in aeroplanes emitting massive amounts of CO2, will include a shorter quarantine period for vaccinated delegates travelling from red list high coronavirus-risk countries and no self-isolation for those coming from amber or green list countries.
“This includes a reduced quarantine period of five days for vaccinated individuals from red list countries,” a COP26 official confirmed, according to Reuters. “There will be no requirement for self-isolation on arrival to the UK for those coming from amber or green list countries whether vaccinated or not.”
Most travellers to the summit will be arriving in the UK in London. Under current travel rules in England, you are recommended against travelling to red list countries — the vast majority Asian, African, and Latin American — and are only allowed to enter the country from those nations if you are a British or Irish citizen or have residency rights.
If allowed entry, the traveller must still quarantine for ten days in a government-designated hotel, even if vaccinated. There is also a requirement to quarantine for ten days at home or where you are staying if arriving from an amber list country, if you are not fully vaccinated.
Despite Britain’s travel minister, Grant Shapps, claiming last week that eventually, all countries will be demanding vaccination of external travellers as condition of entry, COP26 delegates will not be required to be fully vaccinated. Inoculation will be encouraged, the BBC reports, and vaccines have been offered to registered attendees.
A British government spokesman said of the perceived urgency of the face-to-face meeting: “We know that achieving the ambitious global action needed to tackle climate change requires everyone sitting around the same table. To achieve this, we have been working tirelessly to make arrangements for an in-person event.
“Hosting it safely is of the utmost importance to the UK. Like many recent international events, COP26 will have to adapt in line with Covid.”
However, this would not be the first event held in Britain where the global elite were allowed exemptions to strict coronavirus rules not afforded the ordinary Briton.
The G7 Summit in Cornwall, England, in early June, saw pictures released of world leaders maskless, in close proximity to each other, and touching one another, in contravention of the then-rules demanding social distancing and face coverings. The official portrait, however, saw the heads of state and government carefully choreographed, seated six feet apart.
“We’re being played. It’s one rule for the elite, another rule for the rest of us,” Breitbart News’s James Delingpole wrote at the time.
The following month saw further displays of hypocrisy from Britain’s politicians, with Prime Minister Johnson being caught maskless in a chauffeured vehicle with his wife and security detail, despite government officials being advised by Downing Street to cover up when using ministerial cars.
A week later, Johnson attempted to avoid quarantine amidst the pingdemic — that resulted in hundreds of thousands of ordinary Britons self-isolating — by claiming he was involved in a workplace pilot scheme. He and his chancellor, Rishi Sunak, eventually u-turned and opted to self-isolate after outcry over the perceived special treatment being afforded to politicians.
And while Johnson has threatened mandatory domestic vaccine passports for nightclubs, it was revealed days later that MPs would not be required to present a pass to attend meetings in the House of Commons.
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