@POTUS@JoeBiden is here now. A hush came over the room as all eyes turned toward him, @EmmanuelMacron came up to say hi.
UK PM @BorisJohnson kicks off the speechifying with a James Bond metaphor, utilizing the words climax and doomsday clocks. @JoeBiden can be seen in this picture watching him on the left.
Boris’s speech was really quite, odd. And not just the James Bond bit.
Fortunately we now have messages from Earth To COP from daughters of Samoa and a Brazil.
UNSG @AntonioGuterres was ok. I expect Prince Charles speech however will not get good reviews. For its war metaphors and undue emphasis on the private sector, who are of course needed, but not well married to war.
Next up the perfect antidote to all this David @AttenboroughSir.
There is a massive gap between the realities of climate financing and the promises made in 2009. But there is a much bigger gap between the promises and what is acknowledged to be needed.
This thread looks at the realities of #COP26 vs the spin.
Newly appointed @COP26 President Alok Sharmar's observations about the scale of the challenge - echoed quietly by @JoeBiden and @BorisJohsnson are not new.
@COP26@JoeBiden In 2009 in Copenhagen 100 Billion USD a year in investment in developing nations mitigation and adaptation was promised. The promise was made again in 2015 after not being fulfilled. In 2020 financing fell short by 20 billion and in 2021 it will do so again.
The #COP26 has now been officially opened. It began with a minute of silence for all those who died as a result of #COVID19 over the past two years, and all those who are mourning.
The Serpent of Capitalism is the center piece of a public activism event being held today in Glasgow as part of a March which begins today at 3pm on Glasgow Green.
Led by five high priestesses the #SerpentOfCapitalism has arrived at Glasgow Green.
A few pictures from earlier this morning at Glasgow Green where Scottish #COP26 pilgrims arrived this morning and set up a flags at the entrance of the park.
Pilgrims from all over Europe will gather here today for a March up to George Square in the heart of the City.
The UN and it’s organisations ought to meet a high standard of governance integrity for the world to see.
Unfortunately the reality of practice in many aspects of UN governance exhibit the hallmarks of the elitist, exclusive, National government’s of old.
The example of @DrTedros not being opposed is particularly egregious as it is a signal by UN leadership that when challenged (in this case by Tedros’s own National govt.) the reflexive response is to close ranks.
This is the opposite of transparency and accountability.
This evening the @cop26 site becomes officially part of the UN for the duration of #cop26. And from tomorrow morning with around 160 UN staff joining the massive security operation on the site.
The Clyde river, which is starting to get fairly high. The river is known in Latin as the Clutha, which is the largest river in NZ by volume, originating in the alps at Queenstown.
A @NYtimes Columnist is concerned that America’s FP is being mismanaged - a general conclusion with which I concur. But his analysis is excessively simplistic and leaves out both Ethiopia and Climate Change, and therefore also shallow.
@nytimes Biden is about to arrive in Scotland - and in his delegation are (as I understand it) Al Gore, Barack Obama, John Kerry and most probably Hillary Clinton - credited by some with saving Paris in 2009 also as she is already in the UK it seems.