NICOLA Sturgeon has insisted that protesters must be heard “loudly and clearly” during COP26 - but issued warning over those aiming to bring talks to a halt.
The First Minister, speaking at a pro-COP26 briefing, warned that global leaders “have a mountain to climb” if COP26 is to be a success, but stressed that “it won’t be Glasgow that doesn’t deliver” if the event is a failure, but world leaders will have let down the global community.
The First Minister pointed to a “proud tradition of activism and peaceful protest” in Glasgow and Scotland.
She added: “It is absolutely the case that we, and I know that this is the very strong position of the United Nations, want people’s voices to be heard.
“We want the voices of young people, of wider civic society and people across the world to be heard loudly and clearly by those around the negotiating table.”
But in an appeal to those looking to bring the summit to a standstill, the First Minister insisted that “progress will not be made if discussions are disrupted”.
Ms Sturgeon appealed to protesters to be aware of Glaswegians facing disruption for the next two weeks.
She said: “I would ask that people demonstrating remember and show consideration for the city and people living in this city.
“The people of Glasgow are opening up their city to the world at what is a difficult time for everybody around the world.
“I hope those who are travelling here to this city, welcome though they are, to make their voices heard, will recognise that.”
The First Minister warned that COP26 “inevitably poses a risk of increased Covid transmission”, given the number of people meeting indoors and travelling to Glasgow form all over the world.
But she added that officials are “doing everything possible to mitigate these risks as far as possible”.
Scotland’s national clinical director, Professor Jason Leitch, insisted that “we are ready and we are confident that the health service will be available for people with routine events that will happen”, despite the large number of people descending on Glasgow.
He added: “We also ask people to be careful about Covid. COP has arrived and Covid is still here.
“The guidance, the rules around Covid behaviours around your twice weekly testing, around going for your vaccination – all of those things still apply.
“I would ask them to be even more careful during this period.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel