Leadership needed for climate change crisis

As South Africa embraced and confronted the challenge of ‘sudden death’ to overpower the British and Irish Lions 27-9 in Cape Town on Saturday, my thoughts inevitably turned to the subject of leadership.

The team that wins the series on Saturday will have superior leaders in most positions on the day, both on and off the field.

July saw deadly heatwaves and wildfires in the US, Canada and Siberia, and catastrophic flooding in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and China.

Flooding also occurred in London and Edinburgh, and the daytime temperature record was broken in Northern Ireland.

Previous heat and rainfall records didn’t just fall, they were obliterated.

As extreme weather events become worse and more frequent than models predict, climate scientists question whether climate change is accelerating.

To make matters worse, scientists confirmed for the first time in July that the Amazon rainforest is now emitting more CO2 than it is absorbing.

In contrast, June saw the second anniversary of the council’s Environment and Climate Strategy pass without comment – presumably because there has been nothing achieved worthy of celebration – and July saw the council defeat a motion to support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill which is currently before Parliament.

By the time you read this, it’s possible that the council will also have prematurely agreed to open a path on Battlemead’s East Field, thereby threatening a highly sensitive wetland habitat.

All of this while still avoiding governance and scrutiny of its own Environment and Climate Strategy.

It will take an extraordinary effort over the next 10 years to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

We will see whether our council genuinely embraces and confronts the challenge, plays its part, and achieves something extraordinary as a result.

If so it will have taken outstanding leadership across the whole organisation, and depths of courage and ambition way beyond the cautious, safety first approach taken so far.

The upcoming corporate plan will offer some fresh clues.

PAUL HINTON Balmoral Gardens

Windsor