Jeff Bezos’s £48million Gulf Stream led a stampede of private jets out of COP26 last night – as Joe Biden’s Air Force One forced six commercial flights to burn fuel as they circled Edinburgh for 30 minutes while waiting for it to leave.
The UAE and Bahrain royal families joined the exodus yesterday of government and executive planes that left the climate conference. Also, there were delegations from Australia, Japan, India and Brazil.
A dozen flights were within the UK, mostly to London. Other flights went to popular spots like Cannes and Bern.
MailOnline observed 41 private jets leave in total yesterday between 2pm and 11pm – the majority of them rental services making it hard to identify who was on board.
According to estimates, 400 private jets have traveled to and from COP26. These scenes have led to hypocrisy claims, particularly since most of their routes are already covered commercially.
Boris Johnson, a Union flag-embossed Airbus A321 aircraft, arrived at Stansted late last night. He flew 400-miles from Glasgow.
The Prime Minister supported the decision and stated that ‘time constraints’ prevented him from taking the train. The time it takes to fly between the two cities is approximately one hour, as opposed to four hours and half for the direct rail route from Euston.
MailOnline observed 41 private jets leave in total yesterday between 2pm and 11pm – the majority of them rental services making it hard to identify who was on board
After a week of intense negotiations in Glasgow, heads of state from all over the globe left. However, they left behind their negotiation teams yesterday to continue to work out details on how to save the planet from the perils caused by climate change.
Pictured at Edinburgh airport, Mr Biden was seen boarding Air Force One. After saying that he couldn’t think of two days where more progress had been made in climate mitigation, he waved goodbye to the UK.
In a press conference, Mr Biden stated that it was important to accelerate global warming efforts.
“Glasgow should be the beginning of a decisive ten-year period of action so we can keep 1.5 in this region,” he stated. He said that we must continue to accelerate our progress.
“For our part, the United States will keep increasing the ambition and delivering a goal that US emissions are reduced by 50% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels by 2030.
“I can’t recall any two days that more has been done in dealing with climate than these last two days.”
Biden stated that Xi Jinping the Chinese President and Vladimir Putin the Russian President had made a wrong decision not to attend the Cop26 negotiations.
Amazon airways: Jeff Bezos’ Gulfstream private jet – which reportedly cost him £48million – arrives at Prestwick Airport near Glasgow on Sunday
To discuss climate change, Mr. Bezos sat down with Prince Charles this week. He tweeted: “The Prince of Wales has been involved with fighting climate change, protecting our beautiful planet far longer than most. We had a chance to discuss these important issues on the eve of #COP26 — looking for solutions to heal our world, and how the @BezosEarthFund can help’
He said, “We showed up. We showed up and I believe that we had a profound effect on the way the rest of the world views the United States.
“I believe it was a mistake, quite honestly, with respect to China not showing up.
“They have lost the ability to influence people all over the world, including here in Cop. The same way I would argue for Russia.
Boris Johnson, speaking at the conference yesterday, said that he was ‘cautiously optimistic about the prospects of a deal at crucial international negotiations in Glasgow to reduce global warming.
The Prime Minister was pleased to hear a number of announcements made by the assembled leaders regarding deforestation, emissions, and other issues.
He stressed that there was still much to be done if they are to reach an agreement that would preserve the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C.
Johnson suggested ahead of the summit that humanity was at half-time in the fight against climate changes.
He said yesterday, “We’ve pulled back one goal, perhaps two, and I think that we will be able to take it to extra-time because there’s no question that some progress was made.”
He said that although the “doomsday clock” is still ticking, they now have a bomb disposal team on-site and are “starting to snip wires – I hope some the right wires”.
Yesterday Joe Biden left Glasgow as he flew home from the Cop26 summit. Six commercial flights from Air Force One were forced to burn fuel while they circled Edinburgh for 30 seconds, waiting for the plane to depart.
After stating that he couldn’t remember any other day when climate change had been more advanced, the US President was one of those who left Tuesday evening.
The Prime Minister praised the commitments made by many leaders at the summit to halt deforestation and reduce methane emissions.
He highlighted in particular the Indian prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise to cut his country’s carbon emissions by switching half of its power grid over to renewable sources.
He also acknowledged, however, that the issue of climate finance had yet to be resolved – despite a 10 billion dollar (£7.3 billion) commitment from Japan over five years.
Mr Johnson said the richer nations were still behind on a commitment first made at Paris in 2015 to transfer 100 billion dollars (£73 billion) a year to developing countries to support sustainable development and mitigate the inevitable effects of global warming.
The Prime Minister stated, “What I’ve been asking for is action on coal cars, cash, and trees.” He added that after just a few days, we could certainly begin to tick three of these boxes.
Johnson was returning home to London after the two-day leaders’ summit which opened the summit. However, he made it clear that he would continue to engage.
In a message to the remaining team members who will be focusing on the details of negotiations, he stated: ‘The eyes and ears of the world are watching you – the eyes and ears of the British Government and all other governments that care about it – and we have your numbers.
After attending the G20 in Rome on the weekend, he flew to Glasgow on Sunday night. He will return to London later in the week.
Downing Street stated that the talks are beginning to gather momentum, but warned that there were still difficult negotiations ahead.
The official spokesperson for the Prime Minister stated that it was vital that the two weeks of Cop are used to continue to push forward to achieve success at all levels.
“There will be some very challenging negotiations in the next days. We are not content. This is not a done deal.
Modi demanded that the developed countries invest one trillion dollars in climate finance in the future, underlining the scale of these differences.
Mr Johnson stated that it was important to avoid getting caught up in the ‘exaggerated enthusiasm generated by a gathering such as Cop26 and to be cautious against ‘false hopes’.
John Kerry, US climate ambassador, said that he had never witnessed such urgency, commitment, and energy in climate talks.
He stated, “We’ve already achieved an immense amount at Cop in ambition, money and a whole bunch more of new initiatives,”
“Frankly we’re only a day into this and I’ve seen more energy, more dedication, and more urgency that I’ve ever witnessed, and this has been going on since 1988.