The COP jamboree desperately needs a reboot

THE COP27 conference in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh has been full of fractious haggling over how to tackle climate change, as these meetings always have been. But there is one thing that many participants warmly agree on this year: the huge, two-week-long, UN-sponsored annual gathering needs a serious reboot.

It’s about time. Now that the 2015 Paris agreement is in place, there is rising frustration about a system even veteran insiders acknowledge is not doing nearly enough to meet its central goal of cutting greenhouse gases.

Tom Rivett-Carnac, a former UN climate official, says: “COPs were designed to get countries to agree, and they did that in 2015. What the world needs now is action to reduce emissions, and as a result, the COPs are no longer fit for purpose.”