CLIMATE campaigners Extinction Rebellion are marching down a Glasgow city centre street this afternoon in a demonstration highlighting greenwashing at COP26.
The two-week UN climate summit is taking place in Glasgow at the moment, with world leaders having now departed – leaving delegates from each country to negotiate taking further action to reduce emissions.
From 12pm, protesters are gathering at the Buchanan Gallery steps, Buchanan Street, and march over three hours – following a two-mile route around the city.
READ MORE: COP26 LIVE: Day three of UN climate crisis summit in Glasgow
Attendees are encouraged to wear green to highlight the act of greenwashing – a kind of marketing that uses climate-friendly PR to make the public think a company is more sustainable than they actually are.
It comes after Extinction Rebellion targeted JP Morgan investment bank on Waterloo Street yesterday before marching to the SEC, where the COP26 talks are taking place.
Report from the scene:
People who had taken the 25-hour train from Sweden or an 11-day cycle from The Netherlands were just two of the protesters who spoke to The National as Extinction Rebellion sought to highlight "greenwashing" at its COP26 demonstration.
Greenwashing, the protesters made clear, is what they are seeing from the whole summit. Companies and governments talk a good game, but change little to nothing behind the scenes.
One protester, from Flight Free UK - one of the many groups represented at the march - explained how the government's focus on "jet-zero" fell into this trap. Claims of sustainable aviation fuels, they said, were false as those fuels are produced through intense deforestation.
READ MORE: WATCH: Rishi Sunak heckled by climate campaigners during COP26 appearance
Other issues highlighted by marchers included the number of refugees predicted to be created by the climate crisis, a lack of action on deforestation, and the shifting of responsibility for the crisis onto the populace.
People of all ages were represented at the march, which was not allowed to go further than a single block along Sauchiehall Street as Metropolitan Police and British Transport Police halted their progress.
"Whose streets, our streets", "no justice, no peace, no racist police", and "one solution, revolution" rang out as marchers were stopped from passing along the Glasgow street.
Reports say that the march later turned back on itself and moved down West Nile Street, before moving down through other parts of the city centre.
Traffic was stopped in several streets as demonstrators made their way through.
You can watch the full Facebook live below or, to avoid some problems of screen size being reported, on Facebook here:
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