Belgian MP on COP26: "What I see in Glasgow is a place where everyone can be heard"

Jessica Gow speaks to Belgian MP Kris Verduyckt about climate change for the ‘100 Voices: Home and Away’ project.

By Jessica Gow

Belgian MP Kris Verduyckt attended “climate fresk”, a climate change course held on the City of Glasgow college campus. The Vooruit party member is attending the conference to discuss climate and energy. He made points on the COP26 summit and the clean energy differences between Glasgow and Belgium.

Climate fresk provided a look into the science behind climate change and the importance of creating a cleaner earth. The course provided an easy to understand explanation of how human influence in climate has led us to this point. It is open for ages 8+ and is taking place over the two weeks of COP26.

Verduyckt said “This COP26 summit is a very important to me, it is an opportunity to speak to important people about climate and to look at the arrangements we made in Belgium and see if they are also here in Scotland.

“As an international community we have built a lot on climate. What I see in Glasgow is a place where everyone can be heard, I think that is brilliant. However, we still need to take the next steps to a better climate.

“ I think most people see climate change as one dimensional, like the weather changes. The reason it concerns me is because of how much it will affect the wider world. We talked today in the session about climate refugees and I do believe that will be a problem as well, it will change places and it will bring instability and unsafety to the world.

“Global warming has an effect on everything we do as a society and that is the reason I’m here. To express my concerns about that.”