Since the opening of this climate summit, the great leaders of the planet have shown the same ambition: to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. And for that, to conclude agreements that allow reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Several European leaders urged their counterparts to take the measure of urgency, during this COP described as “last chance summit”.

From the podium, Boris Johnson declared that it was time to “take global warming seriously.” Emmanuel Macron explains to him that “developed economies had to play their part”, even adding that his “leadership requires exemplarity.”

At the Tarmac, for the inauguration of COP26, aerial observers and trackers were able to see hundreds of jets and private planes from all 5 continents. These travelers included executives but also billionaire philanthropists, such as Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.

While some had no choice but to fly, this was not the case for all. Starting with Boris Johnson, who on returning from Glasgow avoided the train in favor of his official plane.

According to our calculations, to travel 555 km, the British Prime Minister would have released up to 760 kilos of CO2. The same train ride would have accounted for 960 grams of CO2. That is almost 1000 times less.

Faced with the controversy, the British government justified itself by citing an overloaded agenda.

With the exception of some personalities, such as the mayors of Paris and London who took the train, the majority preferred the plane. Enough to blow up the carbon footprint of this summit, despite the environmental associations.

We see that even in the symbol, leaders who live within 1000km cannot even come by train or commercial flights, it is still very disturbing.

Marie Cohue, activist of the non-violent association COP26

However, since the beginning of COP26, there has been talk of the decrease in pollution generated by aviation. It will undoubtedly be necessary to review the flight plan of the participants during the next COP.