Purpose on Payday

By Ian Morris

October has been dominated by environmental issues, with governments, non-governmental organisations, campaigners and businesses all getting a little bit excited about the long-awaited COP26, which begins on Sunday.

We have seen Boris Johnson announcing £10bn of private investment for green projects from the Global Investment Summit at Windsor Castle. A £400m partnership with Bill Gates to boost green investment. The Government’s long-awaited Net Zero Strategy, setting out policies and proposals for decarbonising our economy over the next 30 years.

We have seen the Chancellor cut Air Passenger Duty on domestic flights, sparking fierce criticism from environmental campaigners that it would make short-haul flights a more attractive option at the expense of lower carbon alternatives like rail, and calling into question the Government’s level of commitment to the climate.

And we have seen a steady steam of pledges, promises and plans from organisations large and small.

So what to expect from COP26 itself? The two-week meeting in Glasgow will see world leaders, diplomats, local authorities, and businesses gather to agree collective action to address the increasingly obvious impacts of global warming.

But will they agree on anything specific? Initial signs aren’t good. Signatories of the Paris agreement have to update their goals in advance of the event. Yesterday, China submitted unchanged national climate targets to the UN, which include increasing coal production until 2025, at which point it will begin to phase it out.

President Biden has arrived in Europe ahead of the summit, with his signature climate policy still to pass through US Congress and his fellow Democrats engaged in squabbling that will hinder his ability to demonstrate global leadership on climate change.

With the world’s superpowers struggling to agree any meaningful pledges, never mind deliver them, it is not the most promising of starts.

Regardless, over the next fortnight we can of course expect to see many new announcements around phasing out of coal, protection of forests, or speeding up the switch to electric cars, alongside protests and calls to action from campaigners and other stakeholders.

With the clock ticking on climate change, the bigger question is whether we will see more pledges and promises turning into genuine action on the scale required. Previous pledges, including those made in 2009 by wealthy countries to contribute $100bn a year to help poorer nations combat climate change have still not been met, with a new plan announced this week suggesting the target would be hit in 2023.

After COP, the baton will be passed from diplomats to businesses. Many companies are already, of course, making great efforts to decarbonise their business activities. We see new pledges and claims on a daily basis – some long-term, spurious and lacking in detail; others robust, backed by achievable plans and being delivered on the ground. The FT’s assessment last week of EY’s announcement that is has already become ‘carbon-negative’ serve as a reminder that however well-intentioned, businesses’ climate claims will be scrutinised in great detail, and need to be watertight.

But while national governments set policy and create the conditions for change, businesses and local authorities are the ‘doers’ expected to achieve it. With the climate emergency becoming more real and more urgent all the time, organisations will increasingly be expected to deliver meaningful, well-evidenced action, not just hot air.