Mar 29Where does the Ukraine crisis leave climate diplomacy in 2022?UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is a worried man. “We must tell it like it is,” the Portuguese told an event hosted by The Economist earlier in March, pointing to the bleak maths around emission trajectories and targets. Amid the “madness” of continued coal investments and his call for China…Guterres5 min read
Jan 28Why it's time for sport to stop taking climate for a rideWelcome to 2022, the year of a Winter Olympics on artificial snow, and a football World Cup in air-conditioned stadia. Far from climate change being a distant threat, the impacts of our warming planet are fast becoming a fact of life — and one that sporting bodies are waking up…Climate Change5 min read
Oct 21, 2021COP26: time to bust the climate dopers?Rising emissions, extreme weather impacts and the poor response from major emitters dominate coverage ahead of the COP26 UN climate summit. Two weeks out from the Glasgow meet, it makes sense that attention is focused on big-time diplomacy and the machinations in Washington, Beijing, London and Brussels. But it’s worth…Cop 265 min read
Jul 9, 2021COP26: time for G7 leaders to front up on climate financeCan rich nations meet the $100 billion climate finance target and keep COP26 on track? It’s the “key missing ingredient” for a successful Glasgow summit, UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab told a Parliamentary committee earlier this week. Now it’s true, $100bn is dwarfed by the trillions projected to be invested…Climate Change4 min read
May 20, 2021COP26: 3 targets for the Glasgow UN climate change summitSlowly but surely the nuts and bolts of a COP26 deal appear to be emerging. It has, if we’re all honest, taken a while, and with a major round of UN negotiations set to kick off at the end of the month, it’s about time. As the chaos of the…Cop 268 min read
Mar 15, 2021Making climate a UK foreign policy priority is a start: delivering it will be tough“I’m gutted we didn’t make it.” Those were the words of then UK deputy prime minister John Prescott in 2000 after a failed round of UN climate negotiations. It’s rare to see a UK politician as senior as Prescott at a UN climate summit. Gordon Brown and David Cameron attended…UK5 min read
Dec 10, 2020Did the Paris climate deal deliver?It's five years since the Paris Agreement was gaveled through… but was it any good? It’s a tricky question. Based on emissions, temperature data and impacts, no. But did we really expect to turn the ship in 5 years flat? Here’s a different take… The team at @SystemIQ_LTD have crunched…Climate Change4 min read
Aug 5, 2020Developing country climate plans deserve our respectLast month Jamaica submitted a new climate plan to the UN — it garnered little global coverage or praise. Jamaica is a small economy and whatever the government in Kingston decides, it rarely moves global markets or makes global media. But it was significant. According to World Resources Institute it…Climate Change6 min read
May 22, 2020China’s NPC: is this the critical climate summit of 2020?Few meetings are as important for the future of the planet as China’s National People’s Congress, which kicked off on Friday 21 May. Delayed due to COVID-19, the gathering of 3000 senior lawmakers is where XI Jinping hopes to reset China’s economy and reboot a battered global image. How the…China4 min read
Mar 5, 2020Marginal gains — what does a climate ‘win’ in 2020 look like?“You find out life’s this game of inches. So is football. Because in either game, life or football, the margin for error is so small — I mean one-half a step too late, or too early, and you don’t quite make it. …Climate Change6 min read
