London – Britain will relax some travel restrictions to assist delegates to attend the U.N. climate conference in Scotland later this yr, including a shorter quarantine period for those from so-called “red list” nations who’ve been vaccinated.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pushed for COP26 to be in-person rather than virtual, believing face-to-face negotiations will achieve more within the battle against global warming, which a United Nations panel stated on Monday was close to being out of control.
But with many nations seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases, concerns have been raised that the arrival of thousands of delegates from across the globe could see the November summit becoming a super-spreading event.
A COP26 official stated the measures for the summit in Glasgow would strike a balance between allowing the talks to go ahead and protecting public health, with regular testing taking place.
Whereas many measures were based on current regulations, the official stated, they’d also embody “specific arrangements” for Britain’s traffic light system used to grade nations on their COVID risk for those arriving for the summit.
“This includes a reduced quarantine period of 5 days for vaccinated individuals from red list nations,” the official stated. “There will be no requirement for self-isolation on arrival to the UK for those coming from amber or green list nations whether vaccinated or not.”
Unvaccinated individuals from red list nations would still need to quarantine for 10 days, the official stated, adding delegates would be encouraged to get fully vaccinated, with Britain offering vaccines to all those registered.
A government spokesperson stated the report from scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) showing that greenhouse fuel levels were high sufficient to guarantee climate disruption for decades proved COP26 was a “necessary event”.
“We know that achieving the ambitious global motion 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,” the spokesperson stated.
“We believe these arrangements strike a balance between allowing essential climate talks at this exceptional event to continue with representation from around the globe whereas continuing to have measures in place to protect public health.”
