I think that people have got an extremely good reason to be angry, young people in particular, whose futures are being trashed by the fact that my generation and the generation above me haven't acted anywhere like fast enough. The role of x r and of the school climate strikes have been really important. They have given the politicians a bit of much needed spine to believe that they can actually move in a more ambitious direction without being punished for it. And i think the the n citizens assemblies have played a similar role. It's really interesting that when you take those citizens assembles on climate, without exception, all of them come up with far more ambitious policies than any government has come up with.
What now for the world? Governments have reached a climate deal which gets us closer to holding temperatures rises to 1.5C. But a last-ditch effort from India and China to water down pledges to phase out coal has led some to consider COP26 a failure. Yes, COP26 could have achieved more but is this agreement one that could potentially be seen as a strong foundation on which the world can build for the future?
To debate the motion we heard from Bim Afolami, MP for Hitchin and Harpenden and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Renewable and Sustainable Energy; Clover Hogan, climate activist, researcher on eco-anxiety and the founding Executive Director of Force of Nature; Caroline Lucas, former leader of the Green Party and MP for Brighton Pavilion; and Adair Turner, Chair of the Energy Transitions Commission.
Chair for this week's debate was Helen Czerski, one of the UK’s most popular science presenters.
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