Cop26 in Glasgow: Halfway to a halfway house on climate change

Editorial: We salute all the people making their voices heard on the streets of Glasgow, London, Bristol and cities around the world

People make their voices heard on the streets of Glasgow (PA)

The United Nations climate summit in Glasgow is at the midpoint of its fortnight of detailed negotiations – the part that matters and is supposed to translate the fine words of the leaders who opened the conference into binding commitments to change.

We are halfway through a summit that appears to be likely to make it halfway to where the world needed it to be. As a young, optimistic news organisation, The Independent would prefer to emphasise the half of the glass that is full, but as one that has always championed green sustainability, we have to be blunt about how far this summit is falling short of the hopes once invested in it.

We would not go so far as Greta Thunberg, the Swedish activist, who called it “a global north greenwash festival”. There is a danger in such language that it will discourage and demotivate the radical spirit needed to press for change. But we need to be realistic about the limits to what can be achieved over the final week of this summit.