Are COP meetings still fit for purpose?

Yes, it was that time again. Time for the great COP cop-out extravaganza as a bunch of talking heads get together for an elaborate greenie shindig that usually achieves absolutely nothing. If you or I were to put a foot wrong by saying something clumsy about ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming’ - we'd soon be branded “deniers” or wicked right-wing enviro-bigots.

But, any layperson’s suspicions or eco-misdemeanors pale into insignificance compared with the wasteful, self-indulgent, virtue-signaling non-event that has come to epitomise COP gatherings. I will never forget the Cop26 meeting which took place in Glasgow in 2021. Freshly elected US president Joe Biden crossed the Atlantic to attend the G20 summit in Italy, closely followed by the Cop26 swaray in Glasgow.

To attend these gatherings, the US presidential circus needed a fleet of no fewer than five enormous military cargo planes as well as the president’s own “oval office on wings” (Air Force One - Boeing 747). The whole job lot is said to have produced in excess of 2.2 million pounds of planet-shriveling carbon on a single trek across the pond.

One aircraft was assigned specifically to carry special stairs for the president to board and disembark the mighty Air Force One because there was nothing available to marry up to such a gigantic aircraft at Edinburgh Airport. As a “security measure” the presidential fleet consisted of decoys as well as “in-service” C-17 Globemasters (huge military tr.