Cop26 message and legacy ‘still hold’, says climate change chief
Chris Stark was talking on Tuesday as the Climate Change Committee paid a visit to Dundee’s Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The legacy of last year’s Cop26 “still holds”, the chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change has said.
Chris Stark was talking on Tuesday as the group paid a visit to Dundee’s Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc as part of a tour across eight locations in the UK.
Dundee is the only destination in Scotland to be visited by the committee, which Mr Stark said was part of an effort to “get out from London, out from Edinburgh to try to understand what’s happening on the ground”.
Mr Stark said focus is now being switched from setting targets on tackling climate change, and more emphasis will be put on “what you actually do to deliver those things”.
He said: “We’re here in Dundee today to meet a whole host of people across nearly two days, and it’s been absolutely amazing to meet people who are actually trying to do some of the things that we’ve been advising on.
“Some of the problems they’ve been encountering, some of the things that they’ve learned, some of the things that we can take back to advise on how to do this even better and more quickly, I don’t think we’d learn any of that if we didn’t actually come and spend some time here.”
When asked about the message from Cop26 – which was held in Glasgow last November – and whether other events such as the war in Ukraine have impacted the momentum towards fighting climate change, he said the logic of stopping the use of fossil fuels “makes even more sense now”.
Mr Stark said: “Although we are in the midst of this fuel crisis and the cost of living being driven by what’s happening in Ukraine, actually, the logic of getting off fossil fuels makes even more sense now.
“The reason why we are experiencing these high costs is partly at least because we are too exposed to fossil fuels. We’re using too many fossil fuels.
It's not really a credible strategy to just keep reminding people about climate change and hope that they do something about it. That's a strategy for exhaustion.
“If we can move more quickly to get ourselves off that, we’ll be more energy secure and we’ll be helping the environment.
“That was basically the message at Cop26, and of course it feels like a long time ago now, but all of that still holds.
He added: “It’s not really a credible strategy to just keep reminding people about climate change and hope that they do something about it. That’s a strategy for exhaustion.
“What we need to be focused on is the changes that deliver these targets. That will cut carbon in the economy and have the benefit I know those changes can have to people living in this country.”
Professor Iain Gillespie, chairman of the Dundee Climate Leadership Group, pointed to Dundee’s climate efforts as being a factor in the city being chosen as the only Scottish location to feature on the tour.
Prof Gillespie said: “There’s no city in Europe that’s done as much as we have to roll out electric-powered vehicles, from the council, from the universities, from business, across the board – the charging points, the infrastructure we’ve got in place.
“We do it at a scale which is big enough to be exportable, big enough for the climate change committee to learn from, but still at a manageable scale.
“We’re not a huge metropolitan centre, but we are a centre. We can operate at a scale that we can control. That’s what’s brought them here.”
He added: “We remain a city that’s in transition. One of the things that we’re in transition about is dealing with some of the areas of social deprivation.
“We have a great number of our citizens living in old tenement buildings that need to be retrofitted in order to deliver on our net zero targets. We have a lot of people living in fuel poverty.
“So that idea of transformation from fossil fuel heating to a future of zero-carbon heating is one that’s really, really apt here in Dundee.”