In the bowels of COP26, the climate theme park

On the banks of the River Clyde, an estuary once dotted with shipyards and steel mills that made Scotland prosper during the Industrial Revolution, they are trying these days to forge the pacts that will have to free the planet from the enormous amounts of CO2 that have been overheating it since the 18th century .

Under the occasional noise of helicopters and sirens, some 30,000 faces hidden behind sanitary masks pass through the corridors of the Scottish Event Campus, where suits, tunics, skirts, djellaba and military uniforms make up a kind of multicultural climate theme park.

It is about the Blue Zone, an armored enclosure that 10,000 British police officers protect abroad and personal patrol of the HIM-HER-IT inside and where United Nations officials, national representatives and experts enjoy diplomatic immunity.

In that convention center, where the local police can only enter at the invitation of the UN Secretary General or in the event of a death threat, the most important climate summit since the 2015 Paris Agreement will be held until November 12.

The forum – postponed for a year due to the pandemic – has several bombastic official names. But the COP26 It is the name most used to refer to an appointment where it is intended to prevent temperatures from rising more than 1.5 ° Celsius at the end of the century with respect to pre-industrial values, although the rise is already by 1.2 ° Celsius and the projections are not very promising.

But before entering COP26 there are many obstacles to overcome: having a UN accreditation, getting accommodation in a city with prohibitive prices, entering the United Kingdom in times of Brexit and pandemic, presenting a negative antigen test daily in the door and wait around an hour to go through the security arches.

Frenzy inside

Once inside, the bustle is frantic because everyone comes with a powerful agenda. The countries want to influence the negotiations, the NGOs want to post their messages, the experts spread their studies and the media try to get information that distinguishes them from the competition.

There are several plenaries where at the beginning about 120 heads of State and Government intervened and this week the ministers, conference rooms, a press center, a canteen with insufferable food, cafes where a croissant costs 4 euros to change and many bathrooms will do it. that some of the thousand workers at the summit religiously disinfect after each use.

At COP26 you breathe adrenaline, there is a good atmosphere and few have resisted taking a photo of an indigenous person dressed in traditional clothes, taken on the boulevards that connect with a multitude of official posts from various institutions, organizations and countries. All this forms a landscape similar to that of a sector fair.

In general, the greener and larger the booth, the more CO2 the country it represents releases. Qatar, the country with the most CO2 emissions per capita in the world, according to World Bank data, has a large and well-kept space where it shows hawks on giant screens.

The hydrocarbon powerhouse Australia pavilion consists of an elegant wooden structure with greenish and ocean blue accents and signs from the Santos Limited gas company. This circumstance was criticized by environmental organizations, which call it “ecopostureo”, and references to gas have disappeared.

“It looks like an amusement park. There shouldn’t be so many pavilions, but rather focus on what is important, “a delegate from an international organization told EFE.

Beyond the official area where negotiations take place behind closed doors, on the other side of the river there is an area for visitors called the Green Zone, where official accreditation is not required but it is required to reserve entry, in which some 200 cultural activities are scheduled such as movie screenings, poetry readings or children’s choirs.

“I have been in big forums like Davos. I think this is less exclusive. But I understand the criticisms about accessibility “, comments a diplomat, who acknowledges that” in terms of logistics there are many problems. “

That and other sources consulted regret, in particular, that there are hardly any rooms to meet in privacy, perhaps because small and closed spaces have become unpopular since the outbreak of the coronavirus.

“I have had to make many calls in corridors that I would normally make in private spaces,” adds that diplomat from the summit organized in Scotland that in 1736 saw the birth of James Watt, precursor of the steam engine that promoted the greatest economic development of the history that, as it has been known a couple of centuries later, is pushing the planet to the brink.