Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Poor greens – despite Greta’s tears, the delegates barely pretended they cared.

After failure in New York, we must reshape the politics of climate change

Published on 24/09/2019, 4:40pm

Comment: Climate denial is no longer the problem, it is inaction of politicians who know what is at stake. They must feel pressure from all sides

By Nick Mabey

The UNSG Climate Action Summit in New York finally took the temperature on the global politics of climate action.

Spoiler alert – it wasn’t hot enough.

The summit also triggered the diplomatic starting gun for the next set of critical climate decisions coming in 2020 at COP26 in Glasgow. With so much climate pollution in the atmosphere, without a big increase in action at Glasgow it will be practically impossible to keep climate change within safe limits.

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People are fired up for action from those with power and authority. Unfortunately, the lukewarm outcomes from the UN Climate Action Summit give little faith that the mercury is rising in the halls of power.

Despite the UN secretary general going far beyond the usual diplomatic niceties – only allowing leaders announcing real commitments a platform – the response from major polluters was virtually non-existent. If solutions are cheaper, public opinion is mobilised and impacts much clearer, why is political action not following?

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In most countries more people want climate action than not. Anti-climate action forces are societally weak but focused; pro-climate action forces are potentially powerful but poorly organised. The problem is not how to raise awareness, but how to align these forces to make an impact on the thousands of decisions needed to reshape our economies and societies.

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