COP celebrities: The star power boosting this climate summit
Actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio has injected a heavy dose of star power into the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow.
DiCaprio, who is a UN climate change representative, arrived in person on Tuesday (local time), after promoting COP26 via social media.
The Hollywood megastar reportedly flew with a commercial airline to avoid burning extra fuel in a private jet, according to Vanity Fair.
Partially hidden behind a black mask, the actor’s famous face was seen with security pushing through crowds of excited onlookers and media.
Tweet from @LeoDiCaprio
In Reuters footage from the scene, a voice can be heard pleading with the 46-year-old to speak with Indigenous Australian women about the fracking taking place on their land.
Another shouted “welcome to Glasgow, Leo”, amid a frantic mob of cameras and mobile phones capturing The Wolf of Wall Street star.
The night before, DiCaprio was photographed at a fringe event with Emmy-nominated writer Paul Goodenough.
In the photo, taken at The Engine Works, he appears to promote Goodenough’s new book, The Most Important Comic Book on Earth: Stories to Save the World.
Fellow actor and environmentalist Maisie Williams has also been spotted at the conference.
The Game of Thrones star spoke with youth activists in an official capacity to promote the Act Now initiative.
She also introduced The Green Planet, the latest documentary by another household name: Documentarian and naturalist Sir David Attenborough.
“It was watching Sir David Attenborough that sparked my passion for the environment,” Williams said.
“His films showed me the complex webs of our ecosystem. How extraordinary life on Earth is, and yet, how fragile.”
Making his mark on the COP26, Sir David delivered a powerful call to action, which DiCaprio shared to social media with the caption “The world is watching.”
DiCaprio is expected to catch up with a friend of his while in Glasgow, another delegate with celebrity status: School Strike for Climate founder Greta Thunberg.
The Swedish teenager has used her platform at the event to sledge the conference and attendees as farcical.
“Inside COP there are just politicians and people in power pretending to take our futures seriously,” Thunberg said.
She said they were also “pretending” to take the present of those already being affected by the climate crisis seriously.
“Change is not going to come from inside there, that is not leadership”, she said.
Hollywood A-lister Matt Damon also spoke at the conference, according to Glasgow Times.
The Good Will Hunting star appeared remotely for a panel called ‘Washing Up: Ensuring Universal Access to Water, Sanitation and Hygiene’.
There have been a host of other famous faces supporting this opportunity for global climate action, albeit from afar, with The Hulk star and activist Mark Ruffalo among them.
“The time for climate betrayal is over,” Ruffalo tweeted.
Tweet from @MarkRuffalo
Actor, comedian and author Stephen Fry and Gladiator star Russell Crowe have also endorsed Sir David Attenborough’s COP26 speech, retweeting it to their millions of followers.
