Hollywood actor and environmental campaigner Leonardo DiCaprio has arrived in Glasgow for the COP26 climate summit. The 46-year-old, a UN climate change representative, was seen at the Kew Carbon Garden exhibit on Tuesday at the main conference centre, where he was mobbed by journalists, fans and delegates.
DiCaprio also participated in a fringe event on Monday, posing with film producer Paul Goodenough, founder of charity Rewriting Extinction. His presence sparked mock surprise on social media, with one local tweeting: "President of the USA outside Greggs and Leonardo DiCaprio in Maryhill. What is this alternative reality Glasgow is living in at the moment?"
The summit, attended by leaders from 200 countries, asks for plans to cut emissions by 2030. DiCaprio, who has donated millions to environmental causes, described campaigner Greta Thunberg as a "leader of our time" when they met in 2019. At the 2016 Oscars, he called climate change "the most urgent threat facing our entire species."
However, his own carbon footprint has faced scrutiny. A 2016 Forbes article noted his "decadent lifestyle" meant his footprint was higher than he thought, a concern he expressed in his documentary Before the Flood. DiCaprio has recently been photographed flying commercially, though it is unknown how he travelled to Scotland this week.
