Mayor of Ross-on-Wye Ed O’Driscoll told LBC radio presenter Nick Ferrari that he’s “talking rubbish” after saying COP27 should be held online.

In the heated exchange (Tuesday, November 8), which lasted three minutes, Cllr Ed O’Driscoll told LBC radio presenter Nick Ferrari: “If you really are worried about immigrants, which you seem to be, you crack on about it a lot, then we’ve got to tackle climate. We really have, because you ain’t yet, once the world starts warming up. There will be a huge exodus.”

“Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC”, or COP27, is the 27th UN Climate Change conference and is being held from November 6 until November 18 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Held annually since the first UN climate agreement in 1992, it is used by governments to agree on policies to limit global warming and adapt to impacts of climate change.

Cllr O’Driscoll added that every country needs to be involved in working towards tackling climate change, and at COP27 only 120 world leaders are meeting in Egypt.

Mayor of Ross Ed O’Driscoll rang in to Nick Ferrari’s programme on LBC radio to assert the importance of dealing with climate change

Mr Ferrari’s faux-outrage about the number of flights required for an event such as COP27 was countered by Ed saying: “It’s a fraction of the number of flights that take place every day.”

He added: “You’re always going to get the idiots like Johnson who go there for their own benefit, I’m sure if Matt Hancock wasn’t in the jungle he’d be there as well. A lot of people do need to be there to talk about the most serious issues on the planet.”

“You’re not telling me that should be trimmed? ‘‘

Of course it needs to be trimmed,” interrupted Mr Ferrari.Cllr O’Driscoll rebutted: “Nick, there isn’t a more important issue on the planet at the present time. You’re worried about the cost of living? You’ve got to look to climate change; you’re worried about immigration? You’ve got to look at climate change.”

Mr Ferrari said: “Should these people all be meeting? Alright, maybe one day. One day everybody zip into somewhere, just for a day, cut it down—I would cut it by more than a half,” adding, “think about the message that would send.”