There is now broad scientific and political agreement that we need to rise to the challenge of climate change and to live in a more sustainable manner. Yet, in the UK and beyond, is becoming clear that political mechanisms do not exist that will allow even currently declared climate change mitigation targets to be met.
In March, the United Nations AR6 report “Climate Change 2023” also highlighted the gap between rhetoric and reality. Businesses therefore need to rapidly understand that we are entering a new era of the climate change debate, and how policy is likely to evolve.
Looking further ahead, at some point the sustainability agenda will need to widen from consuming less, to in addition finding more. The human species is much better at going forwards rather than backwards. In the future, grand infrastructure projects – on planet Earth and beyond -are therefore at least as likely to gain widespread support as measures to curtail human action.
