With less than 100 days to go before Glasgow hosts the Cop26 UN Climate Change Conference, many business leaders, heads of commerce, and politicians are getting hot under the collar that our Covid-blighted city is nowhere near ready. The city will face huge logistical demands and challenges in the lead-up to this, the most significant climate event since the 2015 Paris Agreement, and the biggest global summit the UK has ever seen.
The concern is that the Scottish Government and the leadership of Glasgow City Council need to show more guile and urgency to get the city back up to speed, looking good and fully reopened if this pivotal global showcase – or in the words of council leader Susan Aitken “generational event” – is to be remembered as a Scottish triumph and Glasgow’s green legacy assured. There will be an estimated 30,000 delegates arriving from nearly 200 countries which includes heads of state, NGOs, UN negotiators, business envoys, faith leaders and sponsors. More worryingly, there will also be 25,000 climate change protestors