So is anything useful going to come out of the COP26 climate summit starting this weekend in Glasgow? The pundits increasingly seem to think not, and even Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, has described humankind’s situation as “being 5-1 down at half time”. He’s not a football fan, otherwise he would know that the recoveries from 5-1 down are virtually unknown. I think what he was trying to say is that the climate crisis is very serious - but we should not lose all hope!
But it looks like the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, won’t be turning up. China is the largest CO2 emitter in the world, producing twice as much as any other country, although it is far from the biggest culprit in terms of emissions per person. Australia, the biggest exporter of coal in the world, doesn’t seem too keen on committing to anything much either.
If COP26 fails to produce any genuine global progress, I fear there is a real danger that countries such as the UK and the US will find their own citizens starting to rebel against carbon reduction initiatives that cost them money or inconvenience them. If the perception is that the really big emitters aren’t playing their part, then why should the average taxpayer in Manchester or Minneapolis suffer?
The recent oil price rise, gas shortages and energy crisis have made governments even more hesitant about making commitments to stop coal mining, for instance. China has said its emissions will peak in 2030 and the country will achieve net zero by 2060, but these timings really are far enough off to be meaningless. But what would make China’s leaders reconsider? With the lack of democracy, there is no threat of being voted out, so even if a few million Chinese citizens die in some future climate disaster, even that might not be enough to drive change.
That’s not to say that countries such as the UK are blameless. In last week’s budget, the Chancellor reduced taxation on internal air travel, and froze vehicle fuel duty because of the increasing oil and petrol price. As the Evening Standard said, “With the intention of boosting air travel within the UK as part of its ‘levelling up’ ambition, the government is cutting domestic Air Passenger Duty (APD) from £13 to £6.50 in April 2023”. I’m far from convinced that does anything for levelling up and those moves are not exactly in line with net zero best practice, to say the least!
On the euronews.green website, Molly Scott Cato, former Green MEP and professor of economics at the University of Roehampton calls Sunak’s decision “frankly incomprehensible”. It is a measure that she believes “flies in the face” of climate logic and is in stark contrast with policies in EU countries such as Germany and France.
The best hope for COP is that politicians do like to play down expectations then produce the proverbial rabbit from the hat. Perhaps there will be a pleasant surprise over the coming days in Glasgow. If not, we may have to settle for putting increasing supply chain risk management effort into mitigation - how we handle more and more extreme weather events over coming years. .
In any case, whilst it is easy to be gloomy about COP26, we must not forget that there is a lot more than climate to the “procurement with purpose” agenda. Net zero is probably the biggest issue we face, but there is plenty more we need to address, from waste to modern slavery, from water management to supporting disadvantaged communities. For a procurement professional or department, of course net zero is vital, for a whole host of reasons. But if COP26 does disappoint, don’t despair. There is much more we can do and many other issues that can furnish us with worthwhile objectives, targets and achievements.