We've still got a huge problem to solve. Climate change isn't going away, and reports show there is a 50/50 chance that global temperature increases will break the 1.5°C threshold by 2030. I am an optimist, but you can't help but feel that time is running out if we don't act, especially when you see that carbon emissions went up last year.
However, with every challenge comes an opportunity. It's incumbent on us to start figuring out where those opportunities lie and what we can do to push forward. It sounds cliché, but Covid taught us that we can come together and solve massive problems as a global community. That's the scale of the challenge and the reaction that we need.
There are always strong speeches at COP, but one of the stark changes has been that it's now moving away from theory. You're seeing people, such as Pakistan's prime minister, talking about flooding and its impact on 33 million people. Those floods have taken away 11,000 kilometres of roads and railways, 4 million acres of crops have been devastated. Previously the line was that ‘this is what might happen’. Now we're living in it. We're living in climate change.