This week the COP26, the 26th meeting of the conference of parties meets in Glasgow.

Delayed for a year due to Covid, world leaders will meet to assess the progress made since the Paris conference in 2015, which set the first national targets for carbon dioxide emissions reductions agreed across the globe. Hailed as a breakthrough at the time, the perceived success of the Paris Agreement has set a high bar for subsequent agreements.

Since the Paris agreement the international picture has shifted significantly, driven by two things.

The first is a shift in climate diplomacy.

In October the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, announced a unilateral net-zero emissions target for China. Their aim is to achieve net-zero before 2060. Modelling suggests if achieved, this would reduce projected global temperatures by 0.2 to 0.3C, moving closer to the 1.5C target mandated by the Paris Agreement.

In 2020 President Donald Trump withdrew the USA from the Paris agreement. However, one of Joe Biden’s first acts as president was to reinstate it.

The second major shift is in the price of renewables and low carbon technology.

As recently as two or three years ago, both wind and solar were consistently more expensive than gas or coal, but heavy investment and government subsidies have resulted in huge price declines for a decade or more.

Onshore wind is now easily the cheapest source of electricity on the planet, while huge advances in battery technology have cleared the path to far wider use of renewable energy sources.

However, despite the UK government being one of the first in the world to declare a climate emergency, plans are progressing to open a new coal mine in Cumbria.

As the hosts of COP26 the UK should be setting an example by not investing any more in fossil fuel industries.

Many other countries still have a large reliance on fossil fuels for most of their electricity demand. Because there has been no significant progress made since 2015, even the economic slowdown, caused by the Covid pandemic did not have any discernible impact on atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases and their rate of accumulation.

We need urgent action to stop catastrophic climate change. Global temperature rise must be limited to 1.5°C.

Even if governments claim this is their target, current plans don’t put us anywhere near on track to achieve this.

Current government and corporation targets of net-zero do not mean zero emissions. We need real commitments and fast action to be taken, that means no new fossil fuel investments and infrastructure at home and abroad.

The multiple crises we face are not going to be solved with more exploitation of people and the planet, and cooking the books.

The future of energy we need to see is already economically affordable and technologically possible, so why has the transition not happened already? It is time for world leaders to put the interests of people and the planet first.