The environmental poetry group Poets for the Planet, made up of award-winning poets and spoken word artists from around the world, appeared with researchers from Imperial College London at the COP26 Green Zone at Glasgow Science Centre from 1-2pm on 1 November, as part of a host of events at the UN climate change conference.    

Earthsong: science-inspired poetry against climate change offered a mix of live performances and subtitled recordings, and poetry in a range of languages, with time for questions and answers.

Poets for the Planet is a community of kindred poets, performers, artists and creative activists raising their voices to engage with climate and ecological emergency through poetry in all its forms. The poets performing in Glasgow are: Santiago Acosta, Adnan Al-Sayegh and Jenny Lewis, Luca Bernardini, Annsh Chawla, Moya De Feyter, Harry Josephine Giles, Tammy Lai-Ming Ho, Robin Lamboll, Yang Lian, Ian McLachlan, Jérôme Pinel, Pieta Poeta, Jacqueline Saphra, Marvin Thompson, Anton Trubaïchuk, Debra Watson, Tamar Yoseloff, and Sindiswa Zulu. More details

Afterwards one of the poets involved, Jaqueline Saphra, tweeted: "So proud of the poets and scientists who contributed to the magnificent event today at COP26, especially Ian McLachlan, Debra Watson, and Robin Lamboll, who performed so movingly and fielded difficult questions with sensitivity and aplomb. Having a little weep. Bravo, bravo!!!"

A theology lecturer at Glasgow University, Doug Gay, tweeted his thoughts: "Really impressive and very moving panorama of languages and cultures (sadly missing a Scottish voice due to illness)."