Protesters to take to Edinburgh streets to mark start of COP26 in Glasgow

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The Edinburgh COP26 Coalition are planning to march for two hours tomorrow, setting off from The Meadows at 11am.

Their route will take them along George IV Bridge, Bank Street, North Bank Street, Market Street, Jeffrey Street and Canongate.

The group is then due to arrive at the Scottish Parliament at 1pm, where they will hold a rally at which overseas visitors will make speeches on a variety of topics including the use of fossil fuels, nature and biodiversity, food security and farming, and climate finance and compensation.

Rosewell resident Mike Grant will be among those taking part in the march.

The 61-year-old said: “The UN has just made it clear that we are on course for a disastrous average 2.7 degrees Celsius temperature rise this century. We are already living through what 1.2°C can do.

“Three billion animals dead in Australian bushfires, towns reduced to ashes in US wildfires, killer floods in Europe and a devastating drought-induced famine in Madagascar.

“After 25 years of climate negotiation, this represents nothing less than a massive failure of governance at every level across the world.”

He added that he was marching to ‘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. Our children’s children deserve nothing less from a generation that did so much to cause the problem,” he said.

Elizabeth, a social care worker from Edinburgh, added: “I’m an ordinary person and have never thought of myself as an activist, but this will take every one of us, on the streets, demanding that our governments treat this like the emergency it is.

“If you have children, if you know children, the future looks terrifying, but the worst can be averted if our leaders act decisively now.

“I got involved in the COP 26 Coalition through my trade union; what we need is a just transition, taking every worker with us, for a liveable future for everybody. Hope is taking action.”

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