I’ve never been to a COP meeting. Nobody has ever invited me (can you hear the violins?), I’ve never spotted a role for me to play and I’m not one to turn up just to be seen there – “here’s me outside the Blue Zone!” Just before COP26, a key player in a project I was delivering took time out “to prepare for COP.” It wasn’t a showstopper, just a bit irritating, but I couldn’t help thinking priorities were a bit skewed if a practical project has to play second fiddle to an event.

Every year we get the same headlines – which leaders are or aren’t attending? Who is busy shilling for fossil fuel interests in the background? Do all those flights mean attendees are hypocrites? Will an agreement be made? Which critical square brackets get included in/excised from the final communiqué? Deja vu all over again.

So am I down on COP? No. Here’s my take (from afar):

• COP has been a critically important structure to get even the broadest of agreements on climate. By definition, global negotiations are going to inch forward agonisingly slowly, far too slowly, but we have seen substantial progress over the years.
• The publication rate of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) is a reflection of the fact that push is coming to shove regarding the transition, particularly when it comes to abandoning fossil fuels. Public commitments on the latter open Governments to attack domestically (see the brickbats aimed at Ed Miliband in the UK press re North Sea oil & gas), so they may want to be coy about their plans.
• A huge amount of progress is being made outside the COP framework from reaching simple economic tipping points on renewable energy technology. As many point out, China’s NDC commitments may be rather uninspiring, but their industrial policy seems to be based on rapidly decarbonising itself and the rest of the world through electrification. COP is not the only game in town, far from it.
• Given their wilfully destructive behaviour at the recent plastics and maritime emissions summits, I’m actually pretty glad the US Government is sitting this COP out. The US continues to decarbonise despite Trump, and few are risking investing in fossil fuel projects which will only deliver returns after Trump is gone.
• There’s always somebody all too keen to provide a negative headline. Yesterday morning, Times Radio countered Prince William’s comments on industry’s foot-dragging with opinions from the head of British Gas (clearly unbiased…) and the head of the Institute of Economic Affairs junk tank (which is not only said to receive substantial funding from fossil fuel interests but which provided the economic manifesto which Liz Truss used to plunge the UK economy into chaos, so, yes, let’s listen to them…).

In summary, I think we need to be realistic about what the COP process can and cannot deliver. I am quite happy to watch the analysis from afar, the ups and downs, ins and outs, and, hopefully some light at the end of the tunnel. And, of course, get on with what I do best…