Other countries are a lot worse than us such as China, Brazil, Australian, Saudi Arabia to name a few. But we should not be complacent as our historic footprint is horrible. Other countries are doing better like NZ.
China is an interesting case as it is still blamed by many for Covid and its innocence is still not proven. Hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty both in China and India with coal providing the power for most. However the cost to the environment his high. However (2) China seems aware of this and with total government control we could see a rapid increase in alternative energy projects like solar.
Australia’s stance is harder to stomach as it has opportunities for solar and does not need to exploit coal. So back to the UK, we are still encouraging the development of North Sea fossil fuel reserves which I begrudgingly accept will be needed until green hydrogen can replace gas in homes and probably HGV’s. The EU has to contend with a right wing Polish Government which seems determined to push the constitution of the EU to the limit (probably with funding from the UK and USA and Russia? – this is a total guess).
Putin is not attending and Russia is dependant on its fossil fuel for the foreseeable future unless Germany and the EU can wean itself off their resources. Xi also has stayed at home but will hopefully want to develop good will with developing countries.
Hopefully developing countries can do a multiple kangaroo hop technologically! They did with telephones – most missed out the telephone wires needed for landlines and went straight to mobiles. Entrepreneurs around the world will be looking at opportunities for similar. The big goal I would surmise is the battery. Energy can now be produced at economically viable rates by a variety of means, the big challenge is to be able to store it for use as and when. And then giving access to the technology for free. This has not happened with vaccines despite huge pressure.
The SIDS, Small Island Developing States, have most to lose but will be under represented at COP26. Any policies that ignore our most impoverished and vulnerable people are both immoral and unsustainable. I suspect sustainability might be the most mis used word of the conference. It is not just the peoples of Tuvalu and Vanuatu and Kiribati and the Maldives and thousands of millions of people living below 3m asl that are at risk, but the environment of the millions of species on the planet.
Again we will hear about billions and even trillions of £/$/ Monopoly money being invested, but will we hear enough about the rapid disappearance of insects and other species. This summer it was not only butterflies in absence, but swifts and swallows and house martins; wasps and bees and even flies (I am not the tidiest or cleanest at home but had very few flies this summer).
I have not seen any government initiative to build open barns for owls and wild life to compensate for all the barn conversions. Houses should also be rated by the coverage of natural surface by concrete – how many front gardens now have standing for vehicles causing flooding and reduced natural habitat.
We do not need lots of big policies (just a few!), but lots of little ones – I am back to my front garden which will not win prizes for beauty or tidiness, unless insects and even the slugs are allowed to vote! Perhaps that should be my next campaign – the emancipation of insects and gastropod molluscs!