The dangerous plurality of climate action

**Note: this is a blog post from my time at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021. I am now rekindling this blog to track current issues in climate policy, with a particular focus on communication and political engagement. Please see the tabs at the top of the website for detail on my freelance consulting work. If anything catches the eye I would love to hear from you!**

I just bailed on a very swanky reception that I'd stumbled my way into. It was absolutely ridiculous, there were senior members of the Biden administration knocking around. The fact I left was, therefore, even more ridiculous, but I definitely shouldn't have been there anyway and felt profoundly uncomfortable throughout. Happily, the whole thing has set me thinking, and I'm now sitting in a pub hammering this out. The event turned out to be put on by a 'technology neutral' European energy policy thinktank, which in this case effectively meant very pro-nuclear. The whole thing in fact was a service at the temple of the atom, and the room was full of middle aged suits and receding slick backs. I was instinctively suspicious. I've always been taught that nuclear was bad, and that people like this were not part of the real solution to climate change. It has made me question some of my assumptions.

Nuclear could genuinely save us. I don't know the ins and outs of the argument for and against, but they are beside the point here - it could well save us, and I need to look into it more. It has got me thinking about how tribal we can be with our climate action. These (mostly) guys might not be engaging with marginalised communities or trying to build a better society, but their equivalents are in big banks throwing money at fossil fuels. These guys are instead totally committed to reaching the 1.5 degree target. Why was I so anti them? Leaving the event I walked past a town hall hosting an XR type of event. Braids, walking boots and paper trees were everywhere. This couldn't have been more different. The thought of these people suited and booted around the cocktail tables of what was just about Glasgow's swankiest bar, engaged in considered dialogue with my nuclear worshipping friends seemed laughable.

Why though? Climate action generally preaches openness and tolerance, but it can also be intensely tribal. The nucleites see climate change as a problem of gases, Extinction Rebellion a problem of society. It is useless to suggest that politics should be left out of the issue, because it is eminently political and that fact should be harnessed, but we can all try to restrain our knee jerk reactions and see the other side. Climate action can be so bound up with one's identity, I worry that if we don't we may miss alternative paths to decarbonisation. This would undermine the strength of the whole fight.

All photos are my own.