There hasn’t been much coverage of President Macron’s One Planet Summit on Tuesday, probably because nothing went wrong. The event was to mark the second anniversary of the Paris Agreement on climate change and was marked by quite a number of big pledges from the EU, Governments national and local, corporates and investor groups. Divestment from fossil fuels was a strong theme.

PM Theresa May and Climate Change Secretary Claire Perry flew the flag for the UK.  As I’ve previously said, it makes complete sense for the PM to take ownership of Sustainability as this is one of the few (the only?) areas where the current Government has a good story to tell, plus it resonates with younger voters, a demographic where the Tories’ polling is dire.

But it also raises the bar, with other UK political parties taking to the media to explain how they would do more than the Government. This kind of green one-upmanship is a wonderful thing and long may it continue.

Ms Perry has brought some real pragmatic ambition to the table with the recent Clean Growth Strategy and did a bit of (presumably inadvertent) Green Jujitsu at the Summit by telling the BBC’s Daily Politics “Tackling climate change will bring jobs and growth, I thought that’s what Donald Trump wanted.”

Speaking of the President, Arnold Schwarzenegger made the best statement about the US and climate change I’ve heard in a long time:

“It doesn’t matter that Donald Trump backed out of the Paris agreement, because the private sector didn’t drop out, the public sector didn’t drop out, the universities didn’t drop out, the scientists didn’t drop out, the engineers didn’t drop out. No one else dropped out.

Donald Trump pulled Donald Trump out of the Paris agreement, so don’t worry about that. We at a subnational level are going to pick up the slack and continue on. We will fight and we will create the kind of future for our children and grandchildren because that is our responsibility and no one will stop us.”

Despite the Donald, I really feel that we are at a tipping point on Sustainability in general and climate action in particular. This level of leadership, visual and practical, is an inspiration to all of us on the ground. And, if you are finding a leadership vacuum in your organisation, remember Arnie’s words and take up the slack.