Climate Summit Is Already Failing Test To Lead By Example

‘The remedy is up to all of us. Earnest speeches mean nothing’

- Stephen Pollard

LET’S start with some statements that should be uncontentious. It is in everyone’s interest that COP26 succeeds. Climate change is real, it is dangerous and we need to act.

But that’s where any consensus ends. (And, in truth, those statements are far from uncontentious – there are many who disagree with them.)

I don’t question the science and I support the need to tackle global warming. But day-to-day I’m more concerned with issues like education, health and economic growth, and I worry about the impact on growth of some measures being proposed. Given that we are talking about the future of the planet, perhaps that’s plain stupid of me.

That all means I’m perhaps the perfect example of someone who still needs to be convinced by the arguments being put forward at COP26. I want it to succeed. Get me on board – make me accept that everything else is a second-order priority compared with tackling climate change – and you’ve made the kind of headway that is needed to change the politics and dynamics around this huge subject.