COP26: Six ways Nicola Sturgeon outshone Boris Johnson and his government

LET’S be honest, nobody had high hopes for Boris Johnson at COP26.

This is a man whose previous climate change scepticism is no secret, who made jokes about Margaret Thatcher’s mine closures helping us towards net-zero just a few months ago, and who prompted cricket noises with jibes about the Muppets at a key UN environmental meeting a few weeks back.

Despite the warning signs, the UN climate change summit really has been a total disaster for the Prime Minister.

As he opened the event nearly two weeks ago, the Tory leader made a speech jam-packed with James Bond references which absolutely nobody had positive things to say about.

He then took a private jet back to London to go and meet climate change sceptic and former Telegraph editor Charles Moore. A fantastic look …

From there, it got worse. His government has been engulfed by an increasingly large sleaze scandal that he just can’t escape.

READ MORE: The real issue with Geoffrey Cox's sleaze is it's all above board

Meanwhile, Scotland’s First Minister has had a significantly more positive two weeks on the global stage.

Winning key awards for her climate action, being declared the “true leader” in the room by one expert and speaking to a global audience in international interviews, it’s hard to deny the fact that Nicola Sturgeon stole the show.

Her professional and diplomatic conduct really stood out against all those front pages about endless UK Government sleaze …

Here’s six ways Nicola Sturgeon showed up Boris Johnson and his cronies this week.

Day one: Meeting Greta Thunberg and Vanessa Nakate

One of the first big moments of COP26 for Scotland’s First Minister was meeting these two young climate activists. These photographs are particularly embarrassing for Johnson because it wasn’t long ago at Thunberg took aim at him in particular.

At the end of September at the Youth4Climate summit, she took quotes from him about climate change and added “blah blah blah”. Johnson definitely doesn’t have a picture of him, Thunberg and Nakate smiling together.

Funding the COP26 Youth Conference

When the UK Government decided not to fund the COP26 Youth Conference, Sturgeon stepped in and said Scotland would.

The First Minister described the talks as one of the “most important events” in the run-up to the major summit. Speaking at SNP conference in September, the FM pointed out that the UN host nation always pays for the talks and she didn’t know why the UK wouldn’t.

“But I do know that we cannot allow the world’s children and young people to be silenced in Glasgow on an issue so vital to their future,” she added.

Meeting and receiving a gift from US president Joe Biden

At a Kelvingrove evening event for VVIPs, Scotland’s First Minister met with US president Joe Biden and even received a gift from him. The pair were photographed laughing and smiling together on the same night she met the Countess of Strathearn, Angela Merkel and others.

The picture of Sturgeon and Biden would be particularly upsetting for Tories, given one Conservative MP told the Daily Mail that there were three objectives for them during COP. “Save the planet. Save the country. And stop Sturgeon from getting a photo with Biden.” That plan failed horribly.

Nicola Sturgeon receives Ray of the Day award

Towards the end of COP26, the First Minister won the Ray of the Day from the Climate Action Network. The award honours countries and leaders that “have done something exceptional to move the negotiations forward” – with Scotland being recognised for increasing its climate justice funding.

Scotland doubled its contribution to £2 million in order to help people in vulnerable and developing countries cope with loss and damage caused by climate change. The country is the first to “explicitly commit finance to irreversible climate damage”.

Meanwhile on the same day, the UK received the Fossil of the Day award from the group for “sticking their heads in the sand on loss and damage finance”.

CAN added: “It was so far down the list that it didn’t even make it into the list of presidency goals.” The UK also won the Fossil of the Day award on November 1 for “failing to make COP26 the ‘most accessible COP ever’ and hindering civil society’s access to the negotiations”.

Nicola Sturgeon declared the “true leader” of COP26

In a truly humiliating moment for the UK, Scotland’s First Minister was declared the “true leader” at COP26 by the director of an international climate organisation.

After Scotland doubled the commitment to tackling loss and damage, Saleemul Huq, director of the International Center for Climate Change and Development, questioned why others hadn’t done the same.

"The true leader that has emerged here in COP26 is not a party to the convention, she is our host. She is the First Minister of Scotland,” he told journalists. "Just before the COP started, she put a million pounds of Scottish money on the table for a new fund on loss and damage and challenged all the other leaders to match it.

"Yesterday, she doubled the amount … So she is the true leader that is putting money on the table for loss and damage. The US is giving us zero dollars, Europe is giving us zero euros, but Scotland is giving us two million."

Those CNN interviews

Both Johnson and Sturgeon were interviewed by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour at the beginning of COP26. While the First Minister came out of hers well, promoting Scotland and putting her plans for indyref2 to the American audience, Johnson’s wasn’t so positive.

The Prime Minister looked uncomfortable, squirming through questions over why he had no mask on while sat beside 95-year-old national treasure David Attenborough. Whatever else he said in the interview didn’t matter, because the clip of Amanpour putting pressure on the PM was what made headlines everywhere …

Were there any key moments we missed? Let us know in the comments.