NICOLA Sturgeon has called on world leaders to ensure any deal agreed at COP26 “lives up to the urgency of the emergency we face” - as she called on the Prime Minister to return to Glasow to ensure negotiations make it over the finishing line.
The First Minster said she had not properly absorbed the new draft deal that was published overnight – but said the little she has seen of it, it looked like things were “inching forward”.
Speaking on Sky News, Ms Sturgeon said there has been some “incremental progress”.
She added: “If I was a young person looking into this summit right now I would say it’s not good enough.
“There may have been inches forward in this latest draft but there’s still time to get it even further forward and to really make the Glasgow Agreement one that lives up to the urgency of the emergency we face.”
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She added: “In these final hours, the Prime Minister, if necessary, should come back here and drive this deal over the line.”
Asked if she was calling for Boris Johnson to come to Glasgow, Ms Sturgeon said: “If that is what it is going to take, then yes.
“He was here on Wednesday, I welcomed that. In his shoes, I may have stayed here for the remainder of the summit, but come back… every shoulder to the wheel.
“I’m not in the negotiating room. That can feel frustrating sometimes. But get there, and make sure that no stone is left unturned in getting this agreement to where it needs to be.”
Speaking on the BBC, Ms Sturgeon explicitly said her “message to the Prime Minister is come back here”.
She added: “Use your position as president of this COP to really drive progress and push people as far as we can get them.
“Because every inch forward that this text takes is of course another inch towards getting the world on to a path where we avoid climate catastrophe, and nothing, literally nothing, is more important than that.
“The reason I’m singling out Boris Johnson is not just because we’re in the UK – well, it is actually because we’re in the UK, because the UK is the COP presidency, and that puts a particular onus on the shoulders of the UK Government.”
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