CLIMATE change activists from all over the world marched through Glasgow today to confront the threat of greenwashing.
Extinction Rebellion, along with other environmental groups and members of the public walked from the Buchanan Galleries steps, led by samba drummers and dressed in green.
Greenwashing is a term used by environmental activists to describe the activities by a company or an organisation that are intended to make people think that it is concerned about the environment, even if its real business is seen as harming the environment.
They are accusing COP26 sponsors of covering up destructive habits as a PR trick while ‘corrupting’ climate negotiations and ‘endangering life on Earth’.
Extinction Rebellion activist Mike Grant, 61, retired from Rosewell, said: “After 25 years of climate negotiation, we’ve seen nothing more than a massive failure of governance at every level across the world.
“So I am acting today to make clear to those gathering for COP26 that the people demand far bolder and far faster action now.
“Every fraction of a degree avoided is a life, a town, a species saved somewhere in the world.”
COP26 sponsors include companies such as Google and the National Grid, each of whom say they are responding to climate change.
However activists claim these businesses are directly contributing to pollution.
Marching today, Extinction Rebellion activist Helen Smith, 34, from Glasgow, said: “I’m so tired of the number of companies profiting from a disingenuous perception of themselves as ‘ethical’ or ‘green’ when the reality is totally the opposite.
“It makes us all sceptical of genuine green claims at a time when this action is more important than ever.
“I’m marching to take a stand against all companies harming the planet while offering inexcusably skewed perceptions of themselves for the benefit of their own brand image.
“And to call to our government to improve regulation to make misguiding the public illegal.”
