'Polluters will be judged by future generations if they fail to act', say Greens ahead of COP27

Future generations will judge polluters as being “complicit in crimes against humanity” if they fail to act to tackle the climate crisis, it has been claimed.

The warning comes ahead of the start of COP27 in Egypt on Sunday, November 6.

World leaders, including prime minister Rishi Sunak and US President Joe Biden, are set to attend the summit in Sharm El Sheikh.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will also travel to the conference, while former prime minister Boris Johnson announced that he will be in attendance.

The summit will take place a year on from the COP26 summit in Glasgow.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg, who was present in Glasgow in 2021, will not be going to COP27, having criticised the summit as a forum for “greenwashing”.

Ahead of the first day of the conference, Scottish Green MSP Maggie Chapman underlined the need for urgent action to reverse climate breakdown.

She also warned of the impact on nations around the world of the crisis.

“World leaders have spent too long gorging themselves on excuses while billions of people are being consigned to death by the climate crisis,” said Chapman.

“Right now, entire nations are staring into the abyss. Those countries who caused this crisis simply cannot sit idly by and wait for the question of their responsibility to disappear under the waves with countless villages.

“Future generations will judge this UK Government and other polluters to be complicit in crimes against humanity if they fail to do something that actually reverses the course of climate breakdown.”

Chapman criticised the Conservatives, as she suggested that more could be done in Scotland to tackle the crisis through independence.

She added: “We often hear about leadership, but where is it? Where is the world when we are at one minute to midnight?

“We have the technology to tackle this. The world has the money to pay for it. All we are lacking is the will.

“In Scotland, we are trying to play our part, but we have one hand tied behind our backs by an anti-climate Tory government that is addicted to fossil fuels and the enrichment of its wealthy friends.

“With the powers of a normal independent country we could do so much more.”