Boris Johnson ridiculed after saying Cop26 was in Edinburgh, not Glasgow

Boris Johnson has mistakenly suggested that the historic COP26 climate summit was in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, not Glasgow, where it actually took place.

The UK prime minister, who had kicked off the meeting two weeks ago with his speech which quoted climate activist Greta Thunberg, appeared to get the two major Scottish cities confused during a post COP26 press conference from Downing Street on Sunday alongside minister and COP26 president Alok Sharma.

Responding to a question about UN general secretary Antonio Guterres’s reaction to the outcome of COP Johnson said: “I don’t think António would want people to think that we’ve cracked it here at COP in Edinburgh, of course not.”

In the grand scheme of Johnson’s slip-ups, we have to say this one is minor but, regardless, it didn’t go unnoticed and the PM was inevitably roasted on social media for this geographical mix-up.

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Amazingly, this wasn’t the first time that someone of note had confused Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Somehow CNN managed to send veteran news anchor Wolf Blitzer, to the Scottish capital to report on COP which was happening 46 miles away.

In addition, the usually accurate Barack Obama also fell foul of a geographical mishap when he spoke at COP last week when he referred to Scotland as part of the “Emerald Isles.” I think you’ll find that’s Ireland, Obama, not the UK.

Regardless of what city it was in, COP26 wound up being a significant event after India and China committed to reducing their reliance on coal, which Johnson said: “sounded the death knell for coal power.” However, campaigners have criticised the Glasgow Climate Pact for being a “phase down” rather than a “phase out” of coal power.