Huge queues outside the SEC Arena on Monday morning
(Picture: AP)The COP26 conference in Glasgow got off to a chaotic start on Monday morning as delegates queued for hours to get into the site.
One journalist waiting to enter the conference branded the scenes an “international embarrassment” as hundreds of people faced delays due to security checks.
Some on social media said access to the SEC took up to two hours after more than 25,000 people descended on Scotland’s largest city for the international climate talks.
Pictures posted online showed hundreds waiting outside the main gates to the venue. Delegates must pass through airport-style security once inside.
Paul Waugh, a columnist at the i newspaper, said the queues were an “international embarrassment”, adding: “Utter chaos at security for COP26. It’s not as if they couldn’t plan for this is it?”
He also cited one UN official, who arrived on Sunday, as saying: “Total and utter shambles – ambassadors, as well as visitors, were held up in the rain for three hours.
“People were told to come at 8am – facilities for registration opened at 11.30am.”
Around 10,000 police officers are being deployed in Glasgow every day in one of the UK’s largest security operations ever.
It comes just a day after travellers heading to the summit faced heavy delays after rail services were cancelled due to extreme weather.
Many were caught on slow moving or stationary trains, while others were forced to book domestic flights to reach the summit.
On Sunday night, Boris Johnson issued a stark warning that failure at the summit in Glasgow will mean the whole effort to curb emissions will have foundered.
He said: “If Glasgow fails, than the whole thing fails. The Paris agreement will have crumpled at the first reckoning.
“The world’s only viable mechanism for dealing with climate change will be holed beneath the waterline.”
