Three in four say Cop26 will fall short on climate change

ONLY a quarter of people think the Cop26 summit will be effective in tackling climate change, according to polling conducted during the Glasgow meeting’s final days.

While 50 per cent of people believe the summit was useful for getting countries to agree to tackle climate change, only 28 per cent think it will be effective.

Only a quarter think it will make a big difference to them and their family, according to the survey of 2,000 people across the UK conducted by Opinium for The Telegraph. But more than 40 per cent of people either said they were not sure, or did not have an opinion on the impact of the summit.

The findings reflect a lack of public confidence in world leaders to take action on climate change. They also reflect a lack of awareness over the summit, despite an extensive government engagement campaign and widespread media coverage.

The conference reached a dramatic end last weekend when a global agreement to phase out coal was watered down at the last minute under pressure from China, India and the US.

The UK said it had achieved its aim at the summit to “keep alive” the target of the Paris Agreement to limit warming to 1.5C. But critics said the vague wording of many of the pledges gave countries leeway to continue to pollute.

Sam Hall, of the Conservative Environment Network, said the results reflected an understandable scepticism of the process. “Significant progress was made at Cop26, with the historic Glasgow Climate Pact. But the public is rightly sceptical that we haven’t yet seen sufficient ambition and action to limit warming to 1.5 degrees,” he said.