President Biden closed his eyes for 22 seconds before being interrupted by a staff member.
US President Joe Biden arrived in Glasgow on Monday morning to attend the 26th UN Climate Summit (COP26).
President Biden came straight from the G20 summit held in Rome this weekend.
Biden is one of several who speak on the first day of the climate conference. An observant journalist from The Washington Post found out that Biden apparently floated off in the middle of the opening speeches in Glasgow. Whether the president just closed his eyes, or whether he actually flinched, is unclear.
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“Biden appears to be falling asleep during the opening speeches at COP26,” The Washington Post political journalist Zach Purser Brown wrote on Twitter.
Biden closes his eyes for 22 seconds before being interrupted by an employee.
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly teased Biden during the presidential campaign last year, referring to him as “Sleepy Joe”.
Facts about the UN climate summit in Glasgow
* The Glasgow Climate Negotiation Meeting will be held from 31 October to 12 November. The UK and Italy are hosting.
* The meeting was supposed to be held last year, but was postponed due to the pandemic.
* Over a hundred heads of state and government are expected to be present on 1 and 2 November.
* Almost all countries in the world are participating in the negotiations. In addition, organizations, press people and business representatives are present.
* The total number of participants will probably be around 25,000.
The Glasgow summit is formally the 26th meeting of the parties to the countries that have signed the UN Climate Convention.
* Referred to as COP26. The abbreviation stands for Conference of the Parties. Corresponding meetings have been held almost every year since 1995.
Ahead of the summit, a large number of countries have updated and tightened their voluntary climate targets in line with the Paris Agreement.
(Kilder: COP26, BBC, The Guardian, NTB)
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The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is hosting the UN meeting where more than 130 heads of state and government will attend on Monday and Tuesday.
“The longer we wait to shop, the worse it gets,” Johnson said in his speech Monday.
He compared the situation in the world to a James Bond movie in which the hero is tied to a doomsday weapon that can destroy the earth.
– The tragedy is that this is not a movie, said the British Prime Minister.
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At the meeting in Glasgow, negotiators from almost all countries of the world will discuss the implementation of the Paris Agreement. In addition, environmental activists, organizations, press people and business representatives are present.
Eyes aimed at India
US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Labor Party) will also attend the summit part of the climate conference.
India is one of the few countries that has not updated its emissions targets ahead of the summit. Tensions are therefore high over whether Modi will announce new targets for curbing India’s emissions, according to the news agency AFP.
When Støre met the press in Glasgow on Monday morning, he pointed to forest conservation as a key to achieving the climate goals. He announced concrete progress in this area in Glasgow.
In addition, he pointed out that the US and the EU have taken an initiative to reduce emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas methane.
Also read: One of these countries has emitted twice as much greenhouse gas as the other country
Extreme weather and energy crisis
The Glasgow meeting is being held in the wake of a summer marked by extreme weather and an autumn marked by an energy crisis in many parts of the world.
Both the EU and China have been hit by the energy crisis, and the price of gas, oil and also coal has risen. Analysts believe this could make it more difficult for Glasgow countries to promise cuts in fossil energy use.
Jonas Gahr Støre believes that the reduction of fossil energy and the phasing out of nuclear power are among the reasons for the high electricity prices in Europe.
“Nuclear power has been phased out, and renewables are not stable enough and up and going to replace it,” the prime minister said in a brief meeting with the press in Glasgow on Monday.
– This is a challenging picture, he added.
Also read: Støre about energy crisis in Europe: A challenging picture
G20 meeting
Of all the countries in the world, China has by far the largest climate emissions. However, Chinese President Xi Jinping will not be present in Glasgow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not travel to the Scottish city either. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that he was dropping the meeting for security reasons.
The major powers that have the greatest impact on the planet’s climate met at the G20 summit in Rome this weekend. Here they confirmed that they will try to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. But they said little concrete about how this is going to happen.
“I am leaving Rome without my hopes being fulfilled – but at least they have not been shattered,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres wrote on Twitter after the G20 summit.
– Dig our own grave
During the opening of the Glasgow summit on Monday, Guterres called for “saving humanity”.
– We are digging our own grave, warned the UN Secretary-General.
In an interview with NTB, Jonas Gahr Støre says that he hopes for progress in forest conservation and cuts in methane emissions at the meeting in Glasgow. In addition, he refers to the efforts to secure financing for climate measures in developing countries.
– Overall, the goal is to keep the 1.5 degree goal alive. And make progress in some of the most important areas so that the road there can be possible, says Støre.
The climate negotiation meeting in Glasgow lasts until 12 November. Boris Johnson warns that the mind and impatience around the world will become “uncontrollable” if the meeting does not succeed.
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