COP26: Prince Charles and Sir David Attenborough inspire a waiting world – The Yorkshire Post says
They are lifelong campaigners on environmental matters who have been so far ahead of their time that they are more expert in global warming than some of those presidents and premiers who now have the world’s future in their very hands.
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Hide AdBoth His Royal Highness and Sir David, 95, grasped the seriousness of climate change long before some of today’s leaders were born. They appreciate the importance of public engagement. And they have already identified the ingenuity – the green technology – that can create a more stable environment for children to be born.
As Prince Charles put the world on a “war-like footing”, Sir David said “we are after all the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on earth” and that leaders “now understand the problem” of how to put climate change into reverse.
Yet, as both men know, COP26 will be defined by deeds – not words – and the challenge facing Boris Johnson, and his counterparts, is how to build a consensus in the absence of, amongst others, the leaders of Russia and China – two of the world’s most significant polluters.
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Hide AdAfter all, the reason why the world is facing such an emergency, and, to paraphrase the Prime Minister, at “one minute to midnight” on the doomsday clock, is because previous summits did not go far enough. Now the onus is on Mr Johnson to deliver a diplomatic triumph like no other by drawing inspiration from the speeches made by Prince Charles and Sir David – and the example set by those young people addressing COP26 whose futures will depend, literally, on the decisions taken in Glasgow.
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