The COP26 climate summit may make no breakthroughs, but global public opinion is demanding a behavior change that technology now permits. That will make itself felt after the meeting.
There are two ways of looking at the crucial climate change conference currently underway in Glasgow, Scotland.
Through the narrow lens of politics – gauging the prospects of a landmark deal to make good on the unfulfilled promise of the 2015 Paris Agreement – the picture looks distinctly unpromising. Even the summit host, the habitually bullish British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, has rated the chances of success at just 6 out of 10.
Yet a wider-angle view, taking account of what has changed since Paris, yields a decidedly different picture. There has been a dramatic worldwide spread of the sense that we are facing a climate emergency – not just a climate crisis – that demands action; meanwhile, cleaner, greener energy technology is more and more common.
The COP26 climate summit may make no breakthroughs, but global public opinion is demanding a behavior change that technology now permits. That will make itself felt after the meeting.
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