Queen will attend COP26 climate conference in Glasgow

The Queen will attend the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, it has been announced.

COP26 is being held in Glasgow from November 1 until November 12, with leaders from around the world in attendance.

The summit is being billed as the last, best chance to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C to avoid the most dangerous climate change.

📢 NEWS: We are pleased to announce that Her Majesty The Queen will be attending #COP26.@RoyalFamily | #TogetherForOurPlanet pic.twitter.com/fIb7hhaMCK
— COP26 (@COP26) August 27, 2021

Coronavirus rules for thousands of delegates are set to be eased for the event, with rules on quarantine and self-isolation reduced, although strict testing protocols will be in place as well as regular testing.

Ahead of the summit, councillors and unions in Glasgow have raised concerns that the city is not clean enough.

The city council has however said it will work to keep the streets clean ‘before, during and after COP26’ and said it had invested significantly in cleansing services.

It is despite photographs being circulated online showing waste on city streets and bins overflowing.

GMB Union general secretary Gary Smith last month told STV News that workers could take strike action as a result of being “tired and frustrated” at the state of the city.

He said: “The city has seen services cut to bits, thousands of council workers have lost their jobs, there is huge amounts of discrimination still going on against women and workers in this city.

“Women workers are owed hundreds of millions of pounds in back pay. The streets are filthy, the roads are covered in potholes and the whole of the public realm has been allowed to go to rack and ruin. I think our members in Glasgow, many of them have had enough.

“COP might be a positive thing for Glasgow but it is an opportunity for working-class people to tell the true story of this city.”