Fact Check: Alexander Downer says the private jets ferrying delegates to COP26 would emit more carbon than Scotland does in a year.
As delegates from around the world flew into Scotland for the 2021 COP26 climate change summit, Australia's former foreign minister Alexander Downer weighed in on the climate impact of the attendees' air travel.
"There are 400 private jets ferrying delegations to the COP26 conference. @POTUS [US President Joe Biden] brought five. It is estimated they will emit in 24 hours as much CO2 as Scotland emits in a year!," Mr Downer wrote on Twitter.
The Scottish government's most recent estimate, from 2019, puts the country's annual emissions for that year at 47.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.
It is not clear just how many private jets arrived in the UK for the Glasgow summit within 24 hours of Mr Downer's claim, but Fact Check's rough calculations for the emissions that could be generated by 400 private jet journeys are in the tens of thousands of tonnes.
This estimate is several thousand times smaller than the annual emissions of Scotland.
Verdict: Mr Downer's claim is nonsense.
