Joe Biden has been mocked for arriving at the global warming conference in Glasgow in an enormous 20-car motorcade.
Joe Biden has been mocked for arriving at the global warming conference in Glasgow in an enormous motorcade.
Social media users were baffled at the US President’s convoy, which featured about 20 vehicles including the enormous, armour-plated presidential limousine.
“That convoy looks absolutely smashing for the environment,” one person reacting to the video wrote on Twitter.
“And his carbon footprint preceded him,” another said.
One person added, “Twenty-six vehicles to get one guy to a climate change conference. They’re taking the p*ss now. Could’ve been done in an email.”
Another said, “Isn’t this COP26 about climate change? Surely that many motors for one person doesn’t help the environment?”
Speaking at the conference, Mr Biden said this was a “decisive decade” with the “goal of limiting global warming to just 1.5 degrees Celsius within our reach, if we come together, if we commit to doing our part”.
Mr Biden said his $US1.75 trillion ($A2.3 trillion) “Build Back Better” spending bill would both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower energy prices by offering tax credits for things like solar panels.
“Lowering energy prices will also deliver cleaner air and water for our children, electrifying fleets of school buses, increasing credits for electric vehicles and addressing legacy pollution,” he said.
Mr Biden said “every nation has to do its part” but “right now we’re still falling short”.
“We can do this, we just have to make a choice to do it,” he said.
The US President wasn’t the only leader to come under fire for alleged hypocrisy at the summit.
More than 120 heads of state and government gathered in Glasgow for the two-day event at the start of the UN’s COP26 conference, which organisers say is crucial for charting humanity’s path away from catastrophic global warming.
Earlier in the day, Channel 4 News correspondent Ciaran Jenkins posted a video on Twitter showing streets surrounding the venue “choked up with chauffeur-driven cars and vans, many with their engines idling”.
“Interesting look for a climate conference,” he wrote.
One person replied, “They fly in on their private jets, flap their gums about how the rest of us have to change our ways to save the planet, then get back in their private jets and fly home.”
It comes days after Mr Biden toured Rome in an 85-car motorcade, drawing criticism for the poor optics ahead of the COP26 summit in Scotland which kicked off on Monday, local time.
“America’s Marie Antoinette class is Washington’s elites – and that shows it,” one person wrote.
The New York Post reported it was unclear how many of the motorcade’s vehicles were electric plug-ins or hybrids, but they appeared to be standard gas-guzzling limos, SUVs and vans.
Typically US presidential motorcades feature a few dozen vehicles. A small motorcade might have 10, while a large one could include as many as 40, former Secret Service agents told Slate.
The vehicles are transported to the destination country by the US Air Force via heavy transports such as C-17s.
Mr Biden will generate an estimated 2.2 million pounds, or around 1000 tonnes, of carbon dioxide during his Europe tour, according to an analysis by the Daily Mail.
West must hand over cash
In a video message to the conference, Queen Elizabeth II called on world leaders to act together to tackle climate change.
“If the world pollution situation is not critical at the moment, it is as certain as anything can be that the situation will become increasingly intolerable within a very short time,” the 95-year-old monarch said.
“If we fail to cope with this challenge, all the other problems will pale into insignificance.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was “one minute to midnight … and we need to act now”.
Monday’s most anticipated address, from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, tempered the hype somewhat – the third largest emitter will only achieve net-zero by 2070.
COP26 is being billed as vital for the continued viability of the Paris Agreement, which countries signed in 2015 by promising to limit global temperature rises to “well below” 2C, and to work for a safer 1.5C cap.
Governments are under pressure to redouble their emissions-cutting commitments to bring them in line with the Paris goals, and to hand over long-promised cash to help developing nations green their grids and protect themselves against future disasters.
Rich countries have so far failed to provide the promised $US100 billion ($A132 billion) annually to help vulnerable nations adapt to climate change.
The G20 including China, India and western nations committed on Sunday to the Paris goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C.
They also agreed to end funding for new coal plants abroad without carbon capturing technology by the end of 2021.
But the precise pathway to 1.5C was left largely undefined.
Campaigners have expressed disappointment with the group, which collectively emits nearly 80 per cent of global carbon emissions.
And there were a number of high-profile no-shows to the summit.
Neither Chinese President Xi Jinping – who has not left his country during the Covid-19 pandemic – nor Russia’s Vladimir Putin will be in Glasgow.
– With AFP
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