Strategies for Climate Change Post COP26

Despite the many disappointments of the UN COP26 conference, both public awareness of global warming and the profile of the environmental movements seeking to halt it have gained political momentum. Climate denialists are in retreat. After four decades in absentia, government intervention is back. The need to tackle climate change is increasingly recognised across the political, business and civic spectrum. This article assesses these developments and argues that such is the scale and urgency of the climate emergency that the time is ripe for cross-ideological ‘green new deal’ coalitions to emerge. The article proposes a policy framework that can bring together a range of political and social forces in a common endeavour over a protracted period of time. The new German coalition agreement, with its strategic focus on an ecological, social market economy, offers a signpost to the way ahead.