The good, the bad and the muggy!

The good - one of the priorities for the recent G7 summit was climate change and it began with the UK Prime Minister saying that the G7 wanted to "drive a global Green Industrial Revolution to transform the way we live". In terms of highlights, there was a commitment to nearly halve the G7’s carbon emissions by 2030, with a pledge to phase out the use of unabated coal as soon as possible (although no firm date was agreed) along with a promise to stop all international funding for coal projects that do not use technology to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions by 2022. There was agreement to phase out petrol and diesel cars in the coming years and have dedicated USD$2 billion in order to achieve this. 

The bad – the latest report from the Climate Change Committee noted that the UK is not prepared to face predicted climate problems such as severe heatwaves, especially in big cities, and a greater risk of flooding from more intense rainfall – indeed it claims we are even less prepared than we were five years ago when the last report was written. Amongst eight areas that require action are health risks from higher temperatures and heatwaves, risks of weather related failures to electrical power grids, interruptions to the supply of food, timber and other goods supplies, damage to soils, habitats, and natural carbon stores, as well as the risks we face from climate change risks in other countries. “They think they can put adaptation off until tomorrow, but now’s the time for urgent action” said Baroness Brown, the chair of the CCC’s sub-committee on adaptation.

The muggy – a combination of higher temperatures and weekday traffic volumes returning to pre-pandemic levels are adding to air quality issues resulting in a more muggy feel than we have been used to since the summer before the first lockdown. The RAC Foundation’s analysis of figures released by the Department for Transport showed traffic volumes at the end of May exceeded those seen in February 2020, which was more than a month before the first coronavirus lockdown. Vans are making up a higher proportion of traffic due to more deliveries and the overall level of traffic is higher despite an increased prevalence of people working from home.

This agenda is full of contradictions. With every good news story comes a bad news story and no doubt that will be the pattern for a long time to come. That’s not a reason for the positive minded amongst us to change our attitude but it does remind us of the scale of the challenge ahead.