COP26 summit: Messages from Worthing collected for world climate conference

Greenpeace Arun and Adur Group hosted an event in Worthing town centre ahead of the COP26 summit, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference due to take place in Glasgow in November.

Volunteers set up a stall in the town centre during Great Big Green Week, to coincide with more than 2,000 events across the UK, and they collected 50 messages and signatures from shoppers about the hopes they have for a greener future and what they would like the climate summit to achieve.

Group members also crafted their own message on a 10mx20m tapestry map of the UK, which will be carried during a Global Day of Action march in Glasgow on November 6.

Rod Thick, a member from Worthing, said: “We’ve seen a summer of extreme weather, with fires, heatwaves and floods causing hundreds of deaths across the world. And the recent UN report into climate change gave us the starkest warning yet that action is needed urgently.

“However, people I spoke to are positive that we can seize the moment provided by the climate conference and create a greener, fairer future for people in the Worthing area and across the globe - if the UK Government leads by example.”

COP26 is the world’s major annual climate conference, where hundreds of world leaders meet to negotiate and agree plans for tackling climate change. This year’s summit will take place in Glasgow from Sunday, October 31, to Friday, November 12.

Messages collected will be displayed at the conference to show world leaders people feel they need to act now.