Britain will not demand Glasgow climate talks delegates be vaccinated against COVID-19

By Susanna Twidale

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will not require delegates attending November’s international climate conference in Glasgow to have been vaccinated against COVID-19, an official responsible for organising the event said on Wednesday.

Britain will strongly recommend that delegates are vaccinated but it will not be a mandatory requirement, Rosalyn Eales, Chief Operating Officer of the COP26 conference, told a group of lawmakers.

Climate and health experts have said poorer nations struggling to access COVID-19 vaccines could find sending delegates to an in-person meeting difficult.

Eales said it was hard to predict the number of people expected to attend the talks, but said that previous events have typically seen around 20,000 delegates.

“The UK is going to be working to provide vaccines to those accredited delegations who may be unable to get them otherwise,” Business and energy minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan, told the lawmakers in a committee meeting.

(Reporting By Susanna Twidale; Editing by Toby Chopra and Barbara Lewis)