Several of our members attended COP26, speaking up effectively inside and outside the arena, demonstrating just how much the human impact on climate change matters.
I spoke at three events: a passionate call to action, a more measured piece on planning and the Environment Bill, and one for local government in Europe.
We also worked to help get the wording improved in the final declaration, making sure local government is identified as part of the solution.
The Paris-agreed goal is to minimise the impact on our planet to a maximum global warming of 1.5°C. On our current trajectory, the earth will heat by 2.7°C by 2050.
If all the promises were costed and put into place, we would reach around 2°C, which sadly, is not enough.
Imagine how it will be when great cities and whole countries have become uninhabitable because of the increasing extremes of weather, taking people’s homes and land currently needed to grow food.
COP26 was an amazing, vibrant event with so many people encouraging each other to do more. The downside is that it is not enough.
This is not about building more, but less. Planting trees and moving to electricity is much discussed, but it doesn’t excuse our current rate of consumption.
A no-waste economy and preserving resources is where we need to focus our innovation and efforts.
There are many initiatives: what we need is a properly costed strategy with the impacts calculated, costed and funded, at every level.