Good COP, bad COP?

After two packed weeks at COP26, I had the weekend to let it all sink in, to work out what – if anything – we’d achieved.

I went in with high expectations. Perhaps unfairly, when the reality is that COP happens every year and is about gradual improvements on the one that went before. A lunch listening to Al Gore put me right on that.?

But it’s not surprising. For months, I’ve been hearing example after example of firms taking a lead on decarbonisation. Taking the kind of action we need to secure net zero. Gaining confidence to share what they’re doing, because of a growing understanding that it’s important to do so to speed progress.

I’ve also been hearing their clamour for a greater sense of urgency in Glasgow in order to keep 1.5c alive. So I truly believed that this was going to be a historic moment for business leadership.

I’ve left Scotland feeling optimistic about what we’ve delivered.?

Diplomatic negotiations are always painfully slow. Governments?measure their progress in decades; business measure their progress in quarters.?And even though COP26?wasn’t a?business?summit and business didn’t feel particularly invited, we turned up?anyway. En masse.

For every rumoured or notable development from the politicians, there were business discussions taking place (including at the CBI’s hustings and our daily broadcasts , hosted in partnership with the New York Times) that expanded on the announcements, showcased what was possible, and outlined frameworks and solutions that could work in practice, that would go further and faster.??

Even if it meant having the technical conversations around mandatory reporting, for example. For what it’s worth I think the accounting is going to unlock this whole market.?

Speaking at the CBI’s International Dinner, US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John?Kerry said he’d never seen so many CEOs at a COP.

Sadly, we heard familiar cries from the cynics on greenwashing. But companies don’t send their bosses somewhere like that to secure reputations.?

They send their bosses to take action.

And whether it’s Secretary Kerry or the UK Prime Minister or the Prince of Wales, leaders everywhere are starting to say that it is the ingenuity and financial might of the private sector that will get the world to net zero. To match their billions with our trillions.

It will take a lot of work. But what’s obvious from those I spoke to is that we accept that challenge. We can, we must and we will make greater commitments, accept deeper accountability and raise more capital for the task.??

But in answer to the politicians who think they just need us for our money, I say that they need us for so much more. They need business to popularise sustainability – to make it more mainstream.

Politicians are like deer caught in the headlights when it comes to dealing with mixed consumer (voter) sentiment. They feel they can’t push too hard. But it’s where business can step up and do the job that needs doing.?

Business has the answers.

Firms are already testing consumer appetite every day. They’re convincing customers to change their behaviour through new products and new services. They’re influencing what we eat and wear, or how we travel. They’re at the forefront of marketing the benefits of sustainable living.

And they’re also at the sharp end if they fail to lead. In purely commercial terms, the cost of inaction for business is for the first time higher than the cost of action. Those that resist the inevitable will be left behind.?

Scale back the size of the challenge to more familiar territory, and you could liken it to how print media responded to the threat of digital media. Those that embraced the opportunity have generally faired far better, far quicker (says the ex-Guardian employee).?

When the future attacks the present, we shouldn’t protect the present – we should run to the future. Net zero is the future.?

So even though there’s a clear sense that COP26 hasn’t achieved enough, it wasn’t an isolated opportunity to drive change. Even though we need government’s support and partnership, I’m left in little doubt that business has the ambition – and the means – to move faster on the pledges made.

The biggest success of COP26 for me was that business showed up. We did so because we care. And because it’s the future.