Sceptics point out that more than 400 private jets flying to COP26 ferrying heads of states and business leaders will produce more carbon dioxide than what 1,600 Scots pump out in a year. “Rank climate hypocrisy” it was labelled while the politicians quibbled about the conspicuous absence of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin who avoided the jamboree altogether. In a similar vein, amid the local grouses of cost of listing compliance and sustainability reporting, folks have asked how 60 additional pages in an annual report help save trees. Well, there is always the all-digital option for listed companies, if the rules, which require submission of a hardcopy annual report, catch up with the times. I am guessing the rules will change as soon as the last ones among us stop insisting on having to receive a hardcopy too!
Q: What was the carbon footprint for the jamboree that just concluded in Glasgow and was it worth it?
A: Well, #NetZero is not the return we will get if one were to read the tea leaves in the making
A good friend pointed out that anything called Conference of the Parties (COP) is doomed. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Rio 1992 — also known as the Earth Summit for those of us old enough to remember — resulted in the third COP and Kyoto Protocol in 1997. As a commentary in The Guardian notes: “But since then the annual meetings have swung between the fractious and the soporific, interspersed with moments of high drama, and the occasional triumph (Paris Agreement 2015), or disasters like Copenhagen 2009.”
