Cop26: Plant-based dishes to dominate the menu with 80% Scottish food

Plant-based dishes will dominate most of the menu at the Cop26 climate conference. Nearly 80 per cent of the food will be from Scotland.

The low-carbon will include 95 per cent British food, especially locally sourced Scottish produce. Also, each menu item has an estimate of its carbon footprint, “helping attendees make climate-friendly choices”.

The delegates will be served dishes like potato, leek and rosemary chowder, smoked salmon and “a spiced mushroom and onion burger served with a vegan tomato mayo, slaw and shoots”.

Hot drinks at the summit will be served in reusable cups that can be washed 1,000 times. As per organisers, this will save 250,000 single-use cups.

Cop26 president-designate, Alok Sharma, said that the choice of food served was important.

Also read | COP26: Sponsors deem the climate summit as ‘mismanaged’ and 'very last minute'

He was quoted by The Guardian as saying, “It is exciting to see such innovation in the menus that will be on offer and to understand the thought and effort that has gone into making dishes both healthy, sustainable and suitable for different diets and requirements.”

The sample menu includes winter squash lasagne, which contains 0.7kg CO2 equivalent emissions, celeriac, glazed root vegetables and winter squash, with vegan cheddar. Food items like organic kale and seasonal vegetable pasta, braised turkey meatballs, and organic spelt whole grain penne pasta are also included in the sample menu. 

Meanwhile, companies that spent millions of pounds to sponsor the Cop26 climate summit have condemned it as “mismanaged” and “very last minute."

The sponsors include some of Britain’s biggest companies and they have raised formal complaints blaming “very inexperienced” civil servants for delayed decisions, poor communication and a breakdown in relations between the organisers and firm.

Ten major sponsors of the summit include Sky, energy giants Hitachi, National Grid, Scottish Power and SSE, US tech titan Microsoft, and FTSE companies GSK, NatWest, Reckitt, Sainsbury’s and Unilever. 

According to a report by The Guardian, a letter has been sent to the organisers, which is written by broadcaster Sky and co-signed by senior leaders from other Cop26 sponsors.