COP 27: Why design and science provide the answers and politicians are false prophets
COP 27 has arrived in Egypt, and it really is a critical time for humanity and the natural world. Not because the environmental challenges are any greater than they were in Glasgow but because the economic landscape is drastically different. Since COP in Paris in 2015, there has been a lot of positivity, not least because the global community belatedly reached a consensus that the science was right and that there is a significant threat to overcome. However, part of the reason for this international consensus is that the world started to reevaluate what sustainability and planetary stewardship looked like. We transitioned to a new world-view where economics and the environment are part of the same equation, not opposite ends of a seesaw.
Historically businesses and governments have struggled to reconcile the fact that the health of our planet and the economy are not separate entities but entwined. So, the antiquated view that economics and the environment are competing factors remains strong and still pollutes many facets of business strategy and government policy. The result is that the natural world has continued to suffer, playing second fiddle to growth.
As a designer who has focused on my industry’s environmental and social impact for the past twenty years, I am usually optimistic about where we are heading. This is partly because I have encountered many great people and innovative businesses that are doing things to address the challenges of the future directly. But seeing the news coverage and politicians taking to the stage this week for their ten minutes of fame, reciting the same bland, predictable lines, I have become more pessimistic than ever. Why? Because we keep looking to the wrong people for answers and then get upset and frustrated when they let us down. Our politicians are simply incapable of solving this crisis because they lack the knowledge and skill and have been brought up in a system that believes sustainability is a hindrance to growth rather than an opportunity. There is an ideological hurdle that the political classes need to overcome, a recalibration of the ‘business as usual’ mantra. But I don’t believe they see it or fully understand it. So when they talk about economics and the environment working in harmony and green economies, I don’t believe they mean it. Recent actions have confirmed my thoughts as politicians are starting to row back on their sustainability commitments and so-called iron-clad statements of intent, which now appear fragile and vulnerable.
At the start of last week, The Bank of England released a statement predicting that the U.K. economy will be in recession until Spring 2024. The next two years are critical because there is every chance our economic crisis will further fuel the climate crisis. Now, governments can show they are committed to the idea that the economy and the environment are part of the same equation and that they won’t put sustainability on the back burner until the economy is more buoyant. Sadly, I think the opposite is the most likely outcome. Rishi Sunak, the U.K. Prime Minister, was not going to attend COP 27 at all until he was strong-armed into it. Not because of a sense of duty but because of the impending P.R. disaster. Sunak’s excuse was that he needed to stay home because of the economic crisis on our shores. If I was feeling generous, perhaps you could say that is reasonable given the gravity and depth of the problem. But it is a clear example that the government doesn’t see the environment as a short, medium, or long-term economic opportunity but rather an inconvenience. In addition, the government has already started reviewing the funding to projects central to the U.K.’s Net Zero targets and the U.K.’s energy diversification strategy, delaying decarbonisation of the environment and exposing the U.K. to all manner of fines and penalties in the future.
I find modern-day politics incredibly frustrating, especially when it comes to issues such as climate change. Not because of the decades of failure or the repetitive hollow words from the COP lecterns before pissing off home. No, it’s because they pretend to have the solutions. But the reality is that our power structures are not appropriate for dealing with complex, long-term issues such as climate change. Our leader’s short-term mandates, coupled with the electorate’s desire for immediate, clear and obvious outcomes, means such issues are kicked into the long grass in favour of more engaging, audible and relatable issues.
When my wife and I set up Sibley Grove in 2010 and tried to engage clients on how they can be more sustainable, the biggest hurdle we encountered was that businesses don’t want to be told about problems. They want solutions. But with issues like climate change, waste and pollution, the problems are complex, and the solutions come through time. We must accumulate data, create and test solutions, reevaluate, refine and redesign. This process requires creativity, vision, and resilience on the part of the world’s leaders. To embark on a journey that will bear fruit if you trust the science and support designers and engineers to create the solutions for the future.
Politicians aren’t as much to blame as we think they are. In fact, I often think they are a convenient scapegoat for businesses that are more than capable of creating change without the policymakers holding their hands. I attended a climate conference in 2017, where politicians were the target of people’s anger — to my mind, quite wrongly. I am certainly not an apologist for many of the world’s leaders — as I said, they have largely failed to respond to our growing environmental crisis. But I am not surprised that the wealthiest nations fail to seriously address the issues, staggering into the twenty-first century with no apparent sense of direction or a clear plan.
Political leaders rarely discuss climate change or pollution with much knowledge or conviction. During a debate among party leaders in the run-up to the U.K. general election of 2019, a teacher in the audience said many of her pupils see climate change as their number one concern. She asked the panel, ‘what immediate changes would you introduce to combat climate change?’ Rishi Sunak, then Chief Secretary to the Treasury, used this platform to say how his daughter turns off the water, turns off the lights and puts the correct things in the correct recycling bins; before reinforcing his view that a strong economy comes first. His response was typically empty and no more informed than a general member of the public. It illustrated the fundamental lack of knowledge in government to deal with an environmental crisis. A total lack of leadership. It was the equivalent of him being asked about the economic crisis and saying, ‘my grandmother always says look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves.’
While I find it disappointing, I do not overly criticise politicians for such a response. After all, it is foolish to expect innovation to come from the political sphere. Politics, by its very nature, is about stability, balance and compromise. Unfortunately, more often than not, politicians see which way the crowd is running and leap to the front. If we expect them to lead on this issue and drive innovation, we will be waiting for a long time, and are simply misplacing our trust.
Businesses, steered by design and science, must start to lead and drive innovation to the fore, supported by ambitious and engaged policymakers. It is clear that most world leaders care about the natural world — it would be impossible to attend COP and remain ambivalent about the crisis. But, this crisis requires a different kind of leadership, not the type where world leaders recite hollow platitudes from a podium, but the thousands of leaders and creative individuals who fill the halls at COP, who we seldom hear from, but who really understand the problems and the solutions.