UK eases Covid travel rules for COP26 climate conference

The U.K. is relaxing Covid-related travel restrictions for people attending the international climate conference in Glasgow that’s now less than six weeks away. 

Minister-level officials from so-called red list countries, along with two staffers, won’t be required to spend time in quarantine when they arrive for the COP26 conference, according to updated travel requirements. That’s a change from an earlier stance that required visitors from the high risk, red-list countries to spend five days in isolation. 

World leaders, executives and climate activists are expected to attend COP26 to hammer out plans to curb carbon emissions. With new reports showing the planet on track to warm by 2.7 degrees Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, the event is seen as a critical effort to head off catastrophic climate change.