LONDON — As host for a crucial United Nations climate summit this fall in Glasgow, the British government has vowed that the international gathering will not only be "safe and successful," but "the most inclusive ever," even in the face of a surging coronavirus pandemic.
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But delegates from nations ravaged by the virus, unable to get vaccines and forecast to shoulder an outsize burden in a warming world, fear they will not be able to attend the historic gathering because of quarantine requirements, high costs, or travel bans, as well as a lack of vaccination.
The summit is being billed as the world’s “moment of truth” to secure reductions in greenhouse gases. The conference president, British government minister Alok Sharma, has called it the “last chance” to limit future warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) — the threshold scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic, irreversible consequences for the planet.
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised that Britain and its partners will offer full vaccination to every negotiator, official observer and accredited journalist who cannot obtain a shot in their home countries.
But with a deadline fast approaching for timely vaccination, Britain does not appear to have delivered a single dose to the incoming delegates who have asked for help.
Vaccine coverage in many of the least developed countries remains below 2 percent. The World Health Organization has expressed dismay that the richest nations (and biggest polluters), including the United States, Britain and the European Union, have used most of the available supplies in the West.
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The challenges of hosting the summit are daunting — and anxiety-inducing.
British officials have declined to say which vaccine they plan to distribute and how, where and when. Some delegates — both those fully vaccinated and those without a single dose, from rich and poor countries alike — express concern that the Oct. 31-Nov. 12 summit could morph into a superspreader event.
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There was a well-documented spike in coronavirus infections in Cornwall in southwest England after the relatively small and well-protected bubble of the Group of Seven summit in June. Some scientists blame the meeting; spokespeople for the British government say summer vacationers were at fault.
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It is not known which world leaders will attend the conference in Glasgow, Scotland. They are probably waiting to see if it is on track to be a success or a failure. But many countries are sending their top diplomats, alongside environmental, energy and finance ministers. President Biden’s special climate envoy, former secretary of state John F. Kerry, will attend. So will Johnson.
The 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference of the Parties, known as COP26, will be one of the largest world gatherings of the last 18 months. British officials say they are expecting 25,000 official attendees from more than 190 countries. All will have access to the U.N.-managed “Blue Zone” at the Scottish Event Campus in downtown Glasgow, which served until recently as a temporary emergency hospital and coronavirus vaccination site.
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Beyond the official delegations, many thousands more — including youth envoys and environmental activists — are expected to pour into Glasgow for side events and street protests outside of the Blue Zone.
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Johnson lifted almost all mask-wearing and social distancing measures in England in July. Scotland followed with its own rollback earlier this month.
Yet with less than 11 weeks to go, smaller, poorer nations are confronting ever-changing and bewildering rules on travel, testing and quarantine just to reach Scotland.
As one delegate put it, how can someone travel from Fiji, for instance, if global hubs in Australia and New Zealand are virtually closed?
Britain has divided the world into red, amber and green categories. Routine travelers from the 60 or so “red-list” countries — about a third of the world — are essentially banned, except for returning British and Irish nationals. Climate powerhouses such as Brazil, Argentina, Turkey and Indonesia are in this group, as is much of the global south in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
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Officials are making an exception to allow delegates from red-list countries to enter to attend COP26. Yet their climate negotiators, even if fully vaccinated, must still quarantine for five days at a government-sanctioned hotel — most likely out at Heathrow Airport. Those who are not fully vaccinated must spend 10 nights there. The cost for the longer stay at the quarantine hotels has risen to about $3,100 per person.
Aubrey Webson, the ambassador to the United Nations from the Caribbean nation Antigua and Barbuda, and chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States, estimates that a quarter of delegates from low-lying island nations will be forced to quarantine — “and a lot more from the least developed countries.”
“Getting to Glasgow is already going to be an almost insurmountable endeavor for many developing countries,” he said, “and adding this burden could well be a breaking point.”
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Webson said the British government has provided little information: “This is a huge barrier to the developing world, a blow for inclusivity, and a possible threat to a good outcome at COP26.”
As for the mandate on enforced quarantine, Webson added, “Now they may charge us to come to a conference to negotiate our very future.”
Costs of accommodations in Glasgow will also be sky-high, with reports of hotels tripling rates and private rentals via apps like Airbnb listed at jaw-dropping levels.
Mohamed Adow, director of the climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa in Nairobi, expects the summit to be the most difficult climate conference to attend ever. He said delegates are afraid that Britain will accept “the bare minimum of participation just to keep the show on the road.”
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Adow said he hoped to see more leadership from Johnson’s government, which has an outsize responsibility both as host and a major polluter since the founding of the industrial revolution. “We are running out of time” for travel, visas and vaccines, he said. “You could say, we have already run out of time.”
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British officials insist they will sort it out. “We are working hard with our partners to get vaccines to those that need them,” said a COP26 spokesperson from the British cabinet office, who by government protocol is not named.
They set a deadline of July 23 for delegates, official observers and accredited media to request a jab. The government has declined to say how many have done so.
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On its official website, the British host reports, “We are exploring with the U.N. and partners how we can work together to deliver this offer as quickly and efficiently as possible.” The site did not say whether doses might be distributed, for example, via U.K. embassies or U.N. facilities.
The British government has declined to specify which vaccine is being offered. If delegates living in Africa, Latin America or the Pacific islands are given their first dose of the homegrown Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on Tuesday, they would be scheduled to receive their second dose, per a British health advisory, eight weeks later on Oct. 12. Individuals would be considered fully vaccinated two weeks after that, on Oct. 26. The climate summit begins less than a week later.
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Fred Onduri, an official climate negotiator for Uganda, said he has participated in preconference video meetings in recent weeks that saw top participants frozen on their screens and unable to log on because of connectivity errors.
Onduri thinks it will be vital for delegations from the most vulnerable countries to be around the tables at the summit but worries that “many participants, even top negotiators, won’t be able to make their way to Glasgow.”
Quamrul Chowdhury, a negotiator from Bangladesh, said there is “quite a bit of anxiety, even fear” among those delegations about travel to Scotland.
Harjeet Singh, a senior adviser to the group Climate Action Network International, said that the summit will involve very technical negotiations, with high-stakes rounds, undertaken on tight deadlines, requiring sacrifice all around, and that it is crucial to get as many nations in the world to Glasgow as possible to produce a credible outcome.
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Beyond vaccination concerns, he pointed out that some delegates and observers do not have credit cards, cannot pay for rooms in advance and will need to transit through multiple countries or process visas for the United Kingdom in other countries.
“We will not have a normal COP, because these are the most abnormal of times,” Singh said.
Brady Dennis in Washington contributed to this report.
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