Greenpeace chief warns against efforts to ‘greenwash’ pollution

Executive director of Greenpeace International Jennifer Morgan on Thursday issued a warning for countries to avoid trying to “greenwash” ongoing global pollution ahead of the upcoming 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26).

“This Glasgow meeting really is a vital moment where governments need to be courageous,” Morgan told The Associated Press.

“They need to show they’ve understood the science, listen to their people and go much further than they’ve been stating thus far, and give that kind of hope and confidence to their people that they got this and that they’re willing to do things that their corporate interests don’t want them to do,” she said.

An example of countries greenwashing pollution Morgan pointed to was recently leaked documents that showed countries such as Brazil, Australia and Saudi Arabia were attempting to water down an upcoming U.N. report on global warming.

According to the AP, the documents obtained by Greenpeace showed that those countries wanted the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to remove references to measures to reduce greenhouse gases, such as shutting down coal-fired power stations, reducing meat consumption and focusing on emission cuts.

“They’ll try and use this COP to show that they care, that they are really doing a lot,” Morgan said to the AP. “There’ll be a big greenwashing effort in Glasgow that needs to be called out and recognized.”

Morgan said that many governments will likely use this upcoming summit to call for new climate measures while at the same time speaking out against ones that impact them.

“If you look at what they’re doing to try and hold back the world from moving forward, it’s stunning,” she said. “It’s immoral, it’s unacceptable.”

COP26 is scheduled to begin on Oct. 31. President Biden is expected to attend the beginning on the conference as well as send a U.S. delegation of 13 high-ranking officials and Cabinet members. It is unclear whether leaders from other top carbon-emitting countries like China and India will be in attendance.

The Kremlin said Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not be attending in-person and would be taking part in the conference virtually.