tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/glasgow-8219/articlesGlasgow – The Conversation2023-12-05T16:56:45Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2192122023-12-05T16:56:45Z2023-12-05T16:56:45ZJohn Byrne: paying tribute to one of Scotland’s greatest creative cultural forces<p>Marking his immense contribution to the creative life of Scotland, a great outpouring of affection for the artist and playwright <a href="https://www.royalscottishacademy.org/artists/359-john-byrne-rsa/biography/">John Byrne</a> followed the announcement that he had died at the age of 83 – fittingly perhaps – on St Andrew’s Day. </p>
<p>His impressive catalogue of outstanding works developed over the last 60 years has become synonymous with the Scottish cultural landscape, and garnered him international recognition.</p>
<p>His desire to create extraordinary pieces of work burned fiercely to the end. A cultural polymath, Byrne traversed a number of genres throughout his illustrious career, with successes as a playwright, painter, screenwriter, set designer, costume designer, illustrator, muralist and printmaker.</p>
<p>His retrospective at Kelvingrove Art Galleries in Glasgow in the summer of 2022 was a fitting tribute to his remarkable talents. His legacy was primarily portraits of actors and musicians, also including many self-portraits, figurative works, gable-end murals, illustrations, cartoons, album covers and films.</p>
<p>More recently he designed mural work for the ceiling of the King’s Theatre in Edinburgh, and on the side of a city centre building in Glasgow, marking his friend Billy Connolly’s 75th birthday. His paintings hang in galleries all over Scotland, including his beloved <a href="https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums/venues/kelvingrove-art-gallery-and-museum">Kelvingrove Art Gallery</a>.</p>
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<h2>Finding his way</h2>
<p>Born into an Irish-Catholic family in January 1940, Byrne grew up in Ferguslie Park in Paisley, one of Scotland’s most deprived housing schemes. Many might expect this experience to have deeply marked and influenced his work. But there is rarely any sign of darkness or trauma in any of his artworks or writings; in fact, his art is predominantly joyful and irreverent, often displaying a gentle playfulness.</p>
<p>Byrne struggled to make a living as an artist after leaving Glasgow School of Art in 1963, and after a few years he decided to create an alter-ego called “Patrick”. Under this name he submitted some primitive-style artwork to the Portal Gallery in London which he pretended was painted by his father. It was accepted and exhibited in 1967, kicking off Byrne’s professional artistic career down south.</p>
<p>The exhibition attracted the attention of The Beatles who considered using his artwork on their albums. It didn’t happen then, but in 1980, Byrne’s work appeared on The Beatles Ballads compilation album, and seemed to perfectly encapsulate their style.</p>
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<img alt="The cover of the Beatles Ballads album." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476303/original/file-20220727-7170-89sgjt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476303/original/file-20220727-7170-89sgjt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476303/original/file-20220727-7170-89sgjt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476303/original/file-20220727-7170-89sgjt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=593&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476303/original/file-20220727-7170-89sgjt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=745&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476303/original/file-20220727-7170-89sgjt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=745&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476303/original/file-20220727-7170-89sgjt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=745&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">One of Byrne’s many album covers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_Ballads#/media/File:TheBeatlesBalladsalbumcover.jpg">John Byrne/Parlophone Records.</a></span>
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<p>Alongside his art he progressively developed his writing skills in the 1970s, becoming fully immersed in the world of theatre. In 1973 he created the pop-up-book set for John McGrath’s play <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/may/21/the-cheviot-the-stag-and-the-black-black-oil-review-john-mcgrath">The Cheviot, The Stag And The Black, Black Oil</a>, which explored the exploitation of Scotland’s land and people over the centuries.</p>
<p>His own successes soon followed in <a href="https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/theatre-and-stage/full-circle-look-back-creation-writers-cramp-1655568">Writer’s Cramp</a> (1976) and <a href="https://digital.nls.uk/scottish-theatre/slab-boys/index.html">The Slab Boys</a> (1978) – based on his own experiences working in a carpet factory in the 1950s. The play made its way to Broadway in 1983 where the leads were played by fledgling actors Sean Penn and Kevin Bacon.</p>
<p>Then came the multiple Bafta-winning <a href="https://www.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/retro/tutti-frutti-30-making-bbc-scotland-cult-classic-1437061">Tutti Frutti</a> (1987), starring Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson, and <a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/your-cheatin-heart-1990/">Your Cheatin’ Heart</a> (1990) where he met <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tilda-Swinton#:%7E:text=Swinton%20was%20born%20into%20Scottish,political%20sciences%20and%20English%20literature.">Tilda Swinton</a>, mother of two of his children.</p>
<h2>Seeing the world</h2>
<p>Byrne’s extraordinary talent was grounded in his exploration of the human experience, always at the heart of both his scripts and his visual artworks. He was the architect of narratives exploring deeply human characters and their complex relationships, capturing specific periods in time. </p>
<p>His love of RnB and rock'n'roll, together with his close friendships with musicians and actors drove his early artworks through album cover designs, paintings, portraits and caricatures. Besides The Beatles Ballads album, he created covers for Gerry Rafferty, Stealers Wheel and Billy Connolly, whom Byrne painted several times.</p>
<p>His visit to Los Angeles with the Scots singer Donovan had a significant impact, inspiring watercolour studies such as the gentle Burnt Orange LA (1971), and larger scale paintings of black musicians which were exhibited in Glasgow on his return. This fascination seeped into his artistic fantasy lands including <a href="https://artimage.org.uk/17918/john-byrne/the-messiah--2015">The Messiah</a> (2015), a tryptic of musical figures in a fictional American city.</p>
<h2>Seeing himself</h2>
<p>His portraits, in which he wrestled to understand both himself and the personalities who sat for him, provide insight into a deeply personal journey. His portraiture was often comedic, and full of playfulness and irreverence, particularly when it came to his own reflected image.</p>
<p>In real life Byrne always cut a dash. Tall and striking with a distinctive hooked nose and a head of wild grey curls, he carried off his own look effortlessly, sporting tweed jackets, stripy tops, a colourful bandana at his throat and a yellowing half-smoked roll-up hanging permanently from his lips.</p>
<p>His many self-portraits were larger than life, often set within city and seascapes, using a variety of mediums. In his earlier works, such as <a href="https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/self-portrait-with-red-palette-83437">Self-portrait with Red Palette</a> (1975), they can be serious and melancholic, and later on, full of humour where he does not take himself too seriously. But in more recent works, such as <a href="https://artimage.org.uk/17935/john-byrne/big-selfie--2014">Big Selfie</a> (2014), for example, darker traits revealed themselves, as Byrne mused on his mortality and image as the ageing artist.</p>
<p>In 2002 at the age of 62, Byrne <a href="https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/john-byrne-says-he-is-child-of-an-incestuous-relationship-602925">discovered</a> that his adored grandfather Patrick McShane was in fact his father, and that he was the product of an incestuous relationship. Byrne felt bitter at the time, and that it explained the long-term mental illness that blighted the life of his mother Alice and his own childhood. But the artist reconciled himself to it and only went public with the information 15 years later.</p>
<p>This resilience, this ability to accept and understand the frailty of human experience on the edge of working-class communities is what elevates the Paisley artist’s work, his way of seeing things. His compassion, his humour and the quintessential Scottishness of his art and writing all highlight John Byrne’s rightful place as one of Scotland’s finest and most prolific artists. He will be missed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219212/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blane Savage does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Scotland has lost a wonderful writer and artist in the Paisley-born artist.Blane Savage, Lecturer in MA Creative Media Practice and BA(Hons) New Media Art, University of the West of ScotlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2103312023-08-08T15:20:13Z2023-08-08T15:20:13ZNet zero: can cities become carbon-neutral on their own? Here’s what the evidence suggests<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541478/original/file-20230807-27538-24ggu2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C235%2C4486%2C2755&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Glasgow aims to be carbon-neutral by 2030.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/view-river-clyde-sunrise-glasgow-scotland-788509804">Ulmus Media/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/">More than two-thirds</a> (67%) of the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change originated in cities in 2020. It is not surprising, therefore, that mayors have joined national politicians in setting targets for reducing emissions within their jurisdictions. </p>
<p>Many UK cities have committed to achieving net zero ahead of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/net-zero-strategy">government</a> target of 2050 (in <a href="https://www.gov.scot/policies/climate-change/#:%7E:text=Scotland's%2520ambitious%2520climate%2520change%2520legislation,all%2520greenhouse%2520gases%2520by%25202045.">Scotland</a>, it is 2045). <a href="https://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/500002/council_policies_and_strategies/3833/zero_carbon_manchester">Manchester</a> aims to be net zero by 2038, <a href="https://liverpool.gov.uk/communities-and-safety/action-on-climate-change/">Liverpool</a> and <a href="https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/50282/climate_change/2641/what_is_climate_change_and_net_zero/4">Birmingham</a> by 2030. <a href="https://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/cn2028">Nottingham</a> expects to become the first carbon neutral city in the UK as early as 2028.</p>
<p>Are these pledges realistic? How much can cities and local councils actually do on their own to achieve net zero? A lot, certainly – but their capacity to cut emissions is constrained.</p>
<p>Drastically reducing urban emissions will require reform of sectors ranging from transport to electricity generation and home heating. Many of the policies capable of changing public behaviour, encouraging investment in new technology and restructuring the economy in order to do this, cannot be implemented by city hall.</p>
<h2>Setting targets is one thing …</h2>
<p>Ambitious targets provide a reference point, an expression of where we want to end up rather than a detailed road map for getting there. Setting a net zero target indicates a city is pulling in the same direction as national government.</p>
<p>But unrealistic targets, or failure to communicate the scale of coordinated and complex changes needed to achieve them, risk undermining confidence in the overall campaign, especially if progress turns out to be more complicated than was initially implied. </p>
<p>The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, recently tried to capitalise on the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66349777">supposed disaffection</a> with air pollution measures among voters in London by insisting his government’s plans to achieve net zero by 2050 won’t “unnecessarily give people more hassle and more costs in their lives”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/net-zero-copenhagens-failure-to-meet-its-2025-target-casts-doubt-on-other-major-climate-plans-190033">Net zero: Copenhagen's failure to meet its 2025 target casts doubt on other major climate plans</a>
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<p>Policies may also falter if there is insufficient coordination between city planners, business leaders and politicians. In a recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2023.2213223">paper</a>, I looked at some of these issues in Glasgow with fellow researchers. </p>
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<img alt="A purple bus passes under a railway bridge in Glasgow city centre." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541481/original/file-20230807-19-m64fgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541481/original/file-20230807-19-m64fgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541481/original/file-20230807-19-m64fgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541481/original/file-20230807-19-m64fgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541481/original/file-20230807-19-m64fgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541481/original/file-20230807-19-m64fgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541481/original/file-20230807-19-m64fgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Glasgow aims to be carbon-neutral 15 years before the rest of Scotland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/glasgow-uk-march-26th-2023-low-2295485523">Richard Johnson/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>Glasgow is an interesting case, a Scottish city that can trace its large population and wealth to the industrial revolution – and the rich deposits of coal and iron ore it dug up to fuel heavy industries. The city suffered as a result of deindustrialisation. From relying on fossil fuels to support its development, Glasgow now seeks to be a leader in the green economy. </p>
<p>In 2019, Glasgow city set a target to be <a href="https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/article/25066/Council-Sets-Target-of-Carbon-Neutral-Glasgow-by-2030">net zero by 2030</a>. It aims to link this transition with the regeneration of the city through the <a href="https://www.glasgow.gov.uk/glasgowgreendeal">Glasgow Green Deal</a>, which has three objectives: reduce emissions and build resilience to environmental change, create jobs, and tackle poverty. </p>
<p>The latest data suggests emissions for Glasgow city fell <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-local-authority-and-regional-greenhouse-gas-emissions-national-statistics-2005-to-2021">47%</a> between 2005 and 2021. Significant progress, but much of this decline was driven by national efforts to decarbonise the electricity system; very little can be attributed to local policies.</p>
<p><strong>Glasgow’s reduced emissions (2005-2021):</strong></p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541765/original/file-20230808-21-9jx4xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A bar chart showing cumulative change in emissions for Glasgow, 2005 to 2021." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541765/original/file-20230808-21-9jx4xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541765/original/file-20230808-21-9jx4xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541765/original/file-20230808-21-9jx4xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541765/original/file-20230808-21-9jx4xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541765/original/file-20230808-21-9jx4xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541765/original/file-20230808-21-9jx4xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541765/original/file-20230808-21-9jx4xo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Greener electricity (dark green bar) accounts for 39% of Glasgow’s emission cuts since 2005.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-local-authority-and-regional-greenhouse-gas-emissions-national-statistics-2005-to-2021">BEIS</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<h2>… Achieving them is another</h2>
<p>Whatever cities say about their targets, their ability to dictate the pace and scale of the transition to net zero will be determined by the balance of power between national and regional policymakers.</p>
<p>Take transport, for example. Glasgow’s transport emissions comprised 28% of the city’s total emissions in 2021, with emissions from motorway traffic actually increasing in absolute terms from 2005. </p>
<p>Trunk roads – which carry <a href="https://www.transport.gov.scot/media/49177/scottish-transport-statistics-2020-publication-final-version.pdf">nearly half</a> the city’s traffic – are the responsibility of the devolved Scottish government in Edinburgh, while fuel taxes are decided by the UK government in London. </p>
<p>Responsibility for public transport is similarly mixed. The local rail network is overseen by the Scottish government-owned ScotRail, but bus regulation is the responsibility of the city council. </p>
<p>The city council can implement some localised road policies, including congestion charging and workplace parking levies. But clearly, without the cooperation of both the UK and Scottish governments, decisions made in Glasgow will not affect the bulk of the city’s emissions.</p>
<p>It’s also unclear how to count these emissions in the first place. Does a car journey taken by someone living nearby which passes through the city count towards Glasgow’s total? And what about emissions from businesses based in Glasgow that make goods consumed elsewhere? </p>
<p>International and domestic air travel (such as flights from Glasgow Airport) is a major source, but it’s not included among the emissions the city tracks or aims to eliminate. </p>
<p>Glasgow’s own estimate of its emissions, published annually, only reports these sources within unhelpfully broad categories.</p>
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<img alt="A civil aeroplane landing on a runway." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541483/original/file-20230807-24764-zpbybv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541483/original/file-20230807-24764-zpbybv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541483/original/file-20230807-24764-zpbybv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541483/original/file-20230807-24764-zpbybv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541483/original/file-20230807-24764-zpbybv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541483/original/file-20230807-24764-zpbybv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541483/original/file-20230807-24764-zpbybv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A notable absentee from the city’s emissions calculations: Glasgow’s airport.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/glasgow-uk-243-cargolux-747-freighter-2282937617">Anze Furlan/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>What’s more, the multiple agencies involved in reaching net zero include businesses, community groups and nonprofits, many of which lie outside the authority of a city council. Figuring out where their capacity to cut emissions begins and ends, and predicting how any changes they make will affect other agencies and the achievement of other objectives, is complicated.</p>
<p>But Glasgow’s experience suggests cities can play a positive role in this process by convening local groups and asking them to focus their efforts on net zero. Targets are an important way of doing that, but the tougher work of managing and coordinating these efforts cannot be ignored. This is where the UK government’s recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/rishi-sunaks-green-backtracking-contrasts-strongly-with-previous-prime-ministers-efforts-210917">backsliding on net zero</a> is likely to have the biggest impact.</p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Graeme Roy receives funding from UKRI NERC via the Gallant project and the ESRC. He is the Scottish policy lead for the International Public Policy Observatory, of which The Conversation is a partner.</span></em></p>Figuring out who is responsible for cutting a city’s emissions and how their efforts will be coordinated is complicated.Graeme Roy, Head of Economics and Director of the Fraser of Allander Institute, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2051542023-06-08T10:27:04Z2023-06-08T10:27:04ZFive reasons Adam Smith remains Britain’s most important economist, 300 years on<p>June 5 2023 marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Adam Smith, the 18th-century British economist widely hailed as the father of modern economics. </p>
<p>Born in Kirkcaldy, on the east coast of Scotland, Smith studied at the University of Glasgow and at Balliol College, Oxford (which he didn’t think highly of), before becoming a professor of moral philosophy at Glasgow. He was a quiet, unassuming man, only travelling when he accompanied a student on a tour of Europe in the 1760s. He died in Edinburgh in 1790. </p>
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<img alt="A historical plaque." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530594/original/file-20230607-25-yfxs0p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530594/original/file-20230607-25-yfxs0p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=782&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530594/original/file-20230607-25-yfxs0p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=782&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530594/original/file-20230607-25-yfxs0p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=782&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530594/original/file-20230607-25-yfxs0p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=983&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530594/original/file-20230607-25-yfxs0p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=983&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530594/original/file-20230607-25-yfxs0p.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=983&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A plaque on Kirkcaldy High Street.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Kirkcaldy_High_Street_Adam_Smith_Plaque.png">James Eaton-Lee</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Despite living an uneventful life, Smith is considered a central figure in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-enlightenment-philosophers-would-have-made-of-donald-trump-and-the-state-of-american-democracy-56098">Scottish Enlightenment</a>. His book <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-myth-that-holds-adam-smiths-wealth-of-nations-together-35674">Wealth of Nations</a>, published in 1776, remains one of the most influential books ever written – second only to Karl Marx’s Das Kapital as the <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2016/05/12/what-are-the-most-cited-publications-in-the-social-sciences-according-to-google-scholar/">most cited work of classical economics of all time</a>. </p>
<p>As my research <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/scottish-enlightenment-and-the-french-revolution/57C02044A2031C54E6D17DFC5F943CAB">shows</a>, Smith is much more than the “father of economics”. He was a <a href="https://www.libertyfund.org/books/essays-on-philosophical-subjects/">philosopher</a>, a <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/495243/pdf">historian</a>, and a <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/in/cultural-history-of-democracy-in-the-age-of-enlightenment-9781350272859/">political theorist</a>. His life work was dedicated to working out the moral, social and political consequences – both good and bad – of the emerging capitalist and industrial economy in late 18th-century Britain. Here are five reasons why he remains Britain’s most important economist. </p>
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<img alt="A historical portrait painting of a man." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530593/original/file-20230607-17-nsx4od.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530593/original/file-20230607-17-nsx4od.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530593/original/file-20230607-17-nsx4od.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530593/original/file-20230607-17-nsx4od.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=731&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530593/original/file-20230607-17-nsx4od.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530593/original/file-20230607-17-nsx4od.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530593/original/file-20230607-17-nsx4od.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Muir Portrait of Adam Smith, c 1800, artist unknown.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Adam_Smith_The_Muir_portrait.jpg">Scottish National Gallery</a></span>
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<h2>1. He invented fundamental economic concepts</h2>
<p>Among the concepts Smith came up with – or helped to popularise – are productivity, free markets and the division of labour. His use of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-cute-dogs-help-us-understand-adam-smiths-invisible-hand-35673">the invisible hand</a>” to describe the unseen mechanisms that regulate the market economy remains a central metaphor in contemporary economic thinking. </p>
<p>In the 19th century, economists inspired by Smith, including David Ricardo, laid the foundations of economics as the discipline we know today, by formalising economic reasoning in mathematical language. Smith’s innovative discussion of the rules of supply and demand anticipated the economic model of <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/general-equilibrium-theory.asp">general equilibrium</a>. His theory of economic growth also inspired later economists such as John Maynard Keynes to develop the notion of gross domestic product. </p>
<h2>2. He has a cult following</h2>
<p>Smith was already famous in his lifetime, even before he published Wealth of Nations. As a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow between 1753 and 1763, his reputation attracted students from as far away as Russia. </p>
<p>However, in the 20th century, he became something of a hero for proponents of free markets. An influential thinktank founded in the 1970s, the <a href="https://www.adamsmith.org/">Adam Smith Institute</a> – dedicated to the pursuit of economic liberalism – bears his name. And as prime minister, Margaret Thatcher supposedly <a href="https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2018/07/26/rescuing-adam-smith-from-myth-and-misrepresentation">carried a copy</a> of Wealth of Nations in her handbag. </p>
<p>Smith is widely celebrated –- often by people who haven’t read all his works –- as a prophet of individualism and neoliberalism. People see him as the man who foresaw the rise of industrial capitalism and provided definitive arguments against the idea of government interference. This, however, is a caricature of his writings. </p>
<p>Wealth of Nations was not a celebration of individualism. Smith was all too aware of the dangers and drawbacks of unbridled capitalism. In fact, he argued that governmental intervention was needed to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/abs/equalizing-hand-why-adam-smith-thought-the-market-should-produce-wealth-without-steep-inequality/5F88C6D86DD80C3420E85982D72FAF50">keep economic inequalities in check</a>. He also advocated breaking up monopolies, providing public works such as roads and bridges, and educating the middle classes. </p>
<h2>3. He was the first Scot ever to appear on an English banknote</h2>
<p>Between 2007 and 2020, Smith featured on <a href="https://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/the-people-on-the-notes-adam-smith">English £20 banknotes</a>. He was a proud Scotsman, a Kirkaldy native who spent his formative years in Glasgow. </p>
<p>Following Scotland’s 1707 union with England, Glasgow was asserting its place as a wealthy city of merchants. The city was benefiting from access to Britain’s growing trade empire, and by the 1740s it had become the centre of a thriving trading network with North America and the Caribbean. </p>
<p>At the University of Glasgow, Smith taught the sons of wealthy sugar and tobacco merchants and slave-labour plantation owners. They dominated local politics, invested their money in shipping and new industrial development, and were rebuilding Glasgow into an imposing city of stone. </p>
<h2>4. He was a polymath</h2>
<p>In his Glasgow classes, Smith lectured on moral philosophy, a broad humanities subject, which in 18th-century Scotland included topics as varied as morals, politics, religion, economics, jurisprudence and history. </p>
<p>He reworked some of these university lectures into a successful book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Published in 1759, this made him a household name throughout Europe. </p>
<p>Today, the book is mostly remembered by <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/theory-of-moral-sentiments-adam-smith-wealth-of-nations-economics-11671662290">historians</a>. But Smith believed his main achievement was teaching young Scots how to live a good, ethical life. Toward the end of his life, he wrote to the principal of the University of Glasgow that his 13 years as a professor of moral philosophy had been “the happiest and most honourable period” of his life.</p>
<h2>5. His legacy is controversial</h2>
<p>Smith’s economic theories have inspired a long line of free-market economists, but they also influenced Marx’s critique of capitalism. Marx admired Smith’s attempts to analyse the new modes of production that were emerging in early industrial Britain, as well as his innovative theory that wealth was related to labour. </p>
<p>Even today, Smith’s legacy is claimed both by neoliberals (who emphasise his defence of free trade) and by leftwingers (who emphasise his views on the pitfalls of capitalist economies). But Smith would have been puzzled by modern attempts to classify him as either of the right or the left. He was merely studying the changing world in which he lived: an early industrial society that was increasingly engaged in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/12634">colonialism and global trade</a>. It is time to reclaim Smith’s legacy from economists and to celebrate him as an astute observer of <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/78907/how-the-scots-invented-the-modern-world-by-arthur-herman/">Europe’s emerging modernity</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205154/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Plassart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Scottish economist dedicated his life’s work to understanding the consequences – moral, social and political – of capitalism. Both neoliberals and leftwingers claim his legacy.Anna Plassart, Senior Lecturer in History, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2053552023-05-26T16:22:07Z2023-05-26T16:22:07ZPeter Howson: new retrospective reveals how Scots painter found redemption after Bosnian war<p><a href="https://www.flowersgallery.com/artists/167-peter-howson/">Peter Howson’s</a> story is one of seeking dignity in human suffering and violence, and finding redemption; it is also uniquely Scottish. <a href="https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/when-apple-ripens-peter-howson-65">When The Apple Ripens</a>, Howson’s retrospective at Edinburgh City Arts Centre (27 May-1 October), is a timely showcase to celebrate his 65th year.</p>
<p>The exhibition covers three key stages of his life: the early works of portraiture and recording of the aftermath of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22079683">Thatcherite Britain</a>; the impact of his <a href="http://www.hasta-standrews.com/features/2017/12/5/peter-howson-and-the-bosnian-war">experiences in Bosnia and Kosovo</a>; and finally, his therapeutic <a href="https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/21712/Froelich_Peter_Howson_and_The_Language_of_Salvation.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">conversion to Christianity</a> after years of battling with alcoholism and drugs.</p>
<p>Howson studied fine art at Glasgow School of Art (GSA) under the tutelage of head of painting and printmaking, <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/alexander-sandy-moffat">Sandy Moffat</a>, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Moffat was responsible for promoting Howson and his contemporaries <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/features/steven-campbell">Steven Campbell</a>, <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/adrian-wiszniewski">Adrian Wiszniewski</a> and <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/ken-currie">Ken Currie</a> – the “<a href="https://www.lyonandturnbull.com/news/article/bold-figures/">New Glasgow Boys</a>” – who all worked in the GSA classic style of figurative art. Each created narrative paintings based on detailed explorations of realistic characters, but often with exaggerated forms.</p>
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<h2>A Scottish sensibility</h2>
<p>An unmistakably Scottish feature of Howson’s work is the undertone of <a href="https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/sbet/19-2_195.pdf">Calvinism</a> with its God-fearing, joyless culture of toil and penitence.</p>
<p>His unique perspective on the world reflects his experiences of living in the east end of Glasgow. Most of his early work portrayed caricatures of rough, masculine men with exaggerated musculature. In the paintings of the marginalised homeless, such as <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/613">The Heroic Dosser</a> (1987), and others living and working in his neighbourhood, his subjects are imbued with a sense of nobility.</p>
<p>At the heart of his art practice, he explores the extremes of the human condition. He demonstrates empathy, acceptance and respect for worthy subjects, but he has also created works of satire, mockery and derision, attacking the evils of the world. </p>
<p>His artworks are often focused on the dark psyche of the masculine with its capacity to be brutal, violent and destructive, such as <a href="https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/saturday-night-at-glencorse-56566/search/keyword:peter-howson/page/3">Saturday Night at Glencorse</a> (1985). They contain a sense of escalating foreboding and menace. He reserves a particular anger for the inhumanity of the jingoistic far right as can be seen in Psycho Squad (1989) and <a href="https://peterhowson.co.uk/the-blind-leading-the-blind/patriots/">Patriots</a> (1991).</p>
<p>His work often has dark messages contained within, of impending doom, violence and thuggery, with brandished weapons and pitbull terriers. Howson hates bigotry and <a href="https://www.actiononsectarianism.info/children/about-sectarianism/what-is-sectarianism#:%7E:text=In%20Scotland%2C%20the%20word%20sectarianism,can%20lead%20to%20serious%20violence.">sectarianism</a> in all its forms and has sought to use his art to bring all faiths together.</p>
<p>The numerous drumming and dancing characters in his work resonate with the controversial <a href="https://www.theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSA05149">marching season</a> in Glasgow (and Norther Ireland). Protestants affiliated with the unionist and loyalist <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-18769781">Orange Order</a> celebrate historical victories over Catholics in Ireland with marching band parades over the summer. </p>
<p>Howson has always opposed fascism and stands against the rise of the far right in Europe, believing it is one of his life’s works to highlight the effects that these beliefs have on people through his art. At a time when Margaret Thatcher was in power, he called out the right-wing extremists and portrayed the dispossessed with dignity.</p>
<h2>War and peace</h2>
<p>With an obsession around violence and warfare, Howson applied and was <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/1993/06/01/british-war-artist-peter-howson-sent-to-bosnia">commissioned by the Imperial War Museum</a> to record the <a href="https://www.hmd.org.uk/learn-about-the-holocaust-and-genocides/bosnia/the-bosnian-war/">Bosnian civil war</a> in 1993 as the official war artist. He was sent to capture its ugly destructive truth, and encountered death, brutality, annihilation of communities, ethnic cleansing and traumatised refugees, as can be seen in <a href="https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/cleansed-6059/search/keyword:peter-howson/page/3/view_as/grid">Cleansed</a> and <a href="https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/bosnian-harvest-46886">Bosnian Harvest</a> (both 1994), and Barrier Sunset (1995). </p>
<p>For Howson, life is about violence and confrontation, and in his words, encountering it makes him “feel alive”. But the war had a huge impact on Howson’s mental health and his personal relationships were damaged by his experiences.</p>
<p>On his return, after a period of convalescence, he produced 300 pieces of powerful, shocking and controversial works of art. Influenced by <a href="https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/francisco-de-goya">Goya</a>, <a href="https://www.moma.org/artists/1559">Otto Dix</a> and <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/paul-nash-1690">Paul Nash</a>, these works detailed the atrocities and landscapes of devastation he had witnessed. This cathartic output had a cleansing effect on his psyche, and he believed these artworks saved his artistic life.</p>
<p>In coping with his ongoing drug and alcohol addictions, Howson sought out religion as a refuge in therapy which helped give him new purpose. His more recent work has been set around the exploration of strong mythological, Christian and biblical themes.</p>
<p>He explores various aspects of Christ’s life and suffering, he imagines portraits of the apostles, scenes of the crucifixion, the stations of the cross and conjures images of old testament figures, such as Job (2011) and <a href="https://www.artnet.com/artists/peter-howson/terah-father-of-abraham-nw3Sy_5CSE15fq5Z1GswPQ2">Abraham</a>.</p>
<p>Themes of death are explored through Greek mythology, set around journeys through the rivers leading to the underworld, such as Phlegethon (2021). There are similarities (Prophecy, 2016) to the dark works of <a href="https://www.artnews.com/feature/hieronymus-bosch-life-early-works-best-paintings-1202685134/">Hieronymus Bosch</a> whose dreamscapes conjured hell and judgement day. Howson claimed in one interview that he aspires to produce works as sublime as those created by renaissance masters <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/durr/hd_durr.htm">Albrecht Dürer</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giovanni-Bellini-Italian-painter">Giovanni Bellini</a>.</p>
<p>Howson’s work is deeply informed by his experience of growing up in Scotland and all he was exposed to and witnessed in Glasgow. It is also characteristic of the painters who came out of the 1980s Scottish art scene, whose styles reflected an ambivalence about <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/postmodernism#:%7E:text=Postmodernism%20can%20be%20seen%20as,decades%20of%20the%20twentieth%20century.">postmodernism</a>.</p>
<p>Even though this was <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/post-painterly-abstraction#:%7E:text=Post%2Dpainterly%20abstraction%20is%20a,Tate">post-abstract expressionism</a> and well into the era of <a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/c/conceptual-art">conceptual art</a>, many Scottish fine artists of that time, even though most trained at the prestigious GSA, seemed to be stuck in more traditional approaches to portraiture.</p>
<p>Howson’s work has a similar style to other contemporary Scottish artists such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-john-byrne-is-one-of-scotlands-greatest-artists-186961">John Byrne</a>, <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/john-bellany">John Bellany</a> and <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/alasdair-gray">Alasdair Gray</a> in which he paints the human form often in cartoonish and caricaturic style. Many of the Scottish artists of the time painted with a modernist, illustrative style of storytelling. </p>
<p>Howson’s purpose and dedication to his craft and artisanship are evident, but it is his moving display of human suffering and his pursuit of redemption which mark him out as one of the greatest contemporary British artists.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205355/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blane Savage does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Painting with renewed purpose at 65, Peter Howson has overcome his demons to take his place as one of Britain’s leading contemporary artists.Blane Savage, Lecturer in Creative Media Practice and New Media Art, University of the West of ScotlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1865832023-03-29T15:47:52Z2023-03-29T15:47:52ZHow branding can show people’s love for a place and also help to highlight local challenges<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518005/original/file-20230328-18-uoj98c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=71%2C53%2C3868%2C2550&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/new-york-city-15-may-2019-1743364979">Ingus Kruklitis/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The I ♥ NY logo was launched in the 1970s when New York City was at its grittiest and most dangerous. Since then graphic designer Milton Glaser’s creation has been emblazoned on every kind of souvenir imaginable, not to mention inspiring <a href="https://tribecafilm.com/films/i-heart-ny-2018">movies</a>, <a href="https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/designers/news/a20354/raf-simons-new-york-fashion-show/">clothing</a>, <a href="https://newyorkcityfeelings.com/buff-monster-i-love-new-york-graffiti-art-mural/">graffiti</a> and even <a href="https://www.eater.com/2013/3/1/6474109/first-look-the-i-heart-ny-cookbook-from-daniel-humm-will-guidara">food</a>.</p>
<p>More than 50 years later, New York has just updated its iconic branding – <a href="https://www.911memorial.org/connect/blog/story-behind-iconic-post-911-i-heart-new-york-more-ever-logo">not for the first time</a> – to say We ♥ NY as part of an attempt to revitalise the city after COVID lockdowns.</p>
<p>And while lots of people <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-we-heart-nyc-logo-flop">hate the rebrand</a>, it still reflects the intent behind the much-loved original logo. These days it’s hard to argue that the brand hasn’t done the job of communicating exactly how New Yorkers – and many tourists – feel about the city. </p>
<p>Indeed, unlike the kind of brand advertising created for a product, this campaign was never designed to sell anything, but to communicate a feeling about the city by its people. And if people feel more positive about a city or an area, they will be more ready to help improve it. </p>
<p>Such campaigns are developed as part of a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02672571003683797">branding process</a> used to whip up feelings about a place. These so-called “place branding” efforts can gather communities around whichever ideas matter most to these people, whether they are social, economic, or even environmental. </p>
<p>Developing a place brand can be complex and challenging, but also immensely rewarding. It can involve government, companies and society in general. It can include events, ideas and investments focused on winning over visitors, residents and investors – all to help social community and local businesses thrive and grow. </p>
<p><a href="https://peoplemakeglasgow.com/">People Make Glasgow</a> is an example of a flexible place brand that can be associated with a wide range of assets and activities. But this kind of brand doesn’t have to convey a straight, positive message about an area, town or city, it can also be connected to specific challenges. </p>
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<img alt="The famous shopping district in the city, Buchanan Street, is shown filled with people during an afternoon day. A pink sign on a lamp post says " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518007/original/file-20230328-14-n561dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518007/original/file-20230328-14-n561dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518007/original/file-20230328-14-n561dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518007/original/file-20230328-14-n561dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518007/original/file-20230328-14-n561dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518007/original/file-20230328-14-n561dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518007/original/file-20230328-14-n561dq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Crowds pass underneath a sign emblazoned with Glasgow’s place branding logo on Buchanan Street in the city.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/glasgow-scotland-june-8-2019-famous-1431162593">Kilmer Media/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>More recent attempts at branding a location have aimed to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0267257X.2013.800901">galvanise</a> communities to work together to create and communicate a shared identity – not just right now, but also in the future. In many cases, this includes highlighting challenges such as the impact of climate change. </p>
<h2>Using branding to inspire support</h2>
<p>As <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.12581">climate change increasingly affects areas in different ways</a>, communities are starting to use place branding to help address specific environmental challenges. This makes sense since <a href="https://josis.org/index.php/josis/article/view/209">people tend to be attached to where they live</a>, and <a href="https://egin.org.uk/learn-more/renew-wales/">communities often seek ways to act locally</a> to work against or mitigate the effects of climate change. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.inspiredbyiceland.com/">Inspired by Iceland</a> is a good example of this. The country launched a “<a href="https://www.euronews.com/green/2019/06/07/iceland-gives-tap-water-luxury-branding-in-plastic-free-tourism-push">premium tap water</a>” brand in 2019 to encourage residents and visitors to go plastic-free while in Iceland by drinking its tap water.</p>
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<p>Integrating climate-related issues into the branding process communicates to everyone – including tourists, investors, residents and public and private sector bodies – that climate action is a priority. It shows that it’s integral to <a href="https://josis.org/index.php/josis/article/view/114">local identity and discourse</a>, as residents seek to protect their home’s environmental features. </p>
<p>Place branding may also affect local or even national government policy making. This is what happened in Palau, a Micronesian island in the western Pacific. In 2017 its government started to <a href="https://palaupledge.com/#:%7E:text=Palau%20Pledge&text=Palau%20is%20the%20first%20nation,and%20future%20generations%20of%20Palauans.">require all visitors to sign a pledge</a> to be “ecologically and culturally responsible” before they could set foot in the country.</p>
<p><a href="https://visitfaroeislands.com/en/closed">The Faroe Islands</a> in the north Atlantic, took a slightly different approach in 2019 by declaring itself “closed for maintenance, open for voluntourism”. This initiative was used by islanders and local businesses to promote community cohesion. It also offers tourists a unique chance to connect with the core values of the country.</p>
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<h2>Adapting to new challenges</h2>
<p>Most places are limited in their ability to adapt to challenges such as climate change. Unlike residents, local businesses and tourists, a city or country can’t relocate itself. Instead, an area must adapt, which can become <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026151771400212X">a multifaceted and politically challenging process</a> simply due to the range of people and organisations involved. Diverse community needs and imbalances of power held by public and private sector organisations only add to the challenge. </p>
<p>In reality, even though place branding is very much about community cohesion, diverse communities are not necessarily equally involved in the decision-making process. It’s important to recognise that initiatives – whether national, regional, or local – can only go so far, and policy-led change is also required, especially when dealing with challenges such as environmental degradation.</p>
<p>Place branding has become a useful tool to accompany such policies. People can also become quite attached to these brands. Indeed, rather than any reluctance to help the city face new challenges, the opposition to the We ♥ NY update shows the strength of feeling for the city and perhaps even for its brand.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186583/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sonya Hanna receives funding through the Bangor University Innovation and Impact Award, respectively for projects titled: 'Lucozade and Litter: how can we prevent single-use plastic pollution' and 'Capitalising on the Slate Landscape UNESCO World Heritage Site and the Development of Sustainable and Regenerative Tourism in Northwest Wales'.. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thora Tenbrink works for Bangor University and currently receives funding through the Bangor University Innovation and Impact Award, by SellSTEM MSCA ITN Project No. 956124, and by the UKRI-funded RECLAIM Network Plus grant (EP/W034034/1).</span></em></p>Places as diverse as New York City and the Faroe Islands have developed brands to build positive feelings that translate into tourist dollars and, increasingly, support for the environment.Sonya Hanna, Lecturer in Marketing, Bangor UniversityThora Tenbrink, Professor of Linguistics, Bangor UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1920442022-12-19T09:58:11Z2022-12-19T09:58:11ZDrug deaths are rising and overdose prevention centres save lives, so why is the UK unwilling to introduce them?<p>In late 2020, a converted van appeared in central Glasgow. Inside were clean needles, sterilising equipment, mirrors, “sharps bins” for the disposal of syringes, and supplies of the overdose reversal drug <a href="https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugfacts/naloxone">naloxone</a>. There were also boxes containing protein bars, tea, blankets and a defibrillator, as well as two chairs and tables where injections could be prepared.</p>
<p>The van had been converted, and was being driven, by Peter Krykant – an ex-outreach worker with his own history of homelessness and injecting drug use. Frustrated with the fact that no overdose prevention centre (OPC) had yet opened in the city <a href="https://www.nhsggc.org.uk/media/238302/nhsggc_health_needs_drug_injectors_full.pdf">despite calls from the local NHS</a>, he took the law into his own hands and, after a successful crowdfunding campaign, opened one independently.</p>
<p>OPCs are places where people can take illegally purchased drugs in a supervised environment, using clean equipment and with staff able to intervene in the case of an overdose. The first such centre opened in the Swiss capital Bern in 1986, and there are now <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=17-5DJHbW9HnUQyDYo5XQF7R8dPuyEN2A&ll=40.90817195577131%2C2.8725385499999447&z=2">around 200 across the world</a> from Berlin, Paris and Geneva to Sydney, Vancouver and New York.</p>
<p>While the centres go under an array of different names including “drug consumption rooms”, “safer consumption sites” and “safe injecting facilities”, the essential concept – providing a safe environment for the use of risky, illegal drugs – remains the same. There have been no recorded overdose deaths within any of these centres since the first opened 36 years ago.</p>
<p>No such services exist in the UK, however. As <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsrelatedtodrugpoisoninginenglandandwales/2021registrations">drug-related deaths continue to rise</a>, the debate over whether this should change has become increasingly heated – especially in Scotland, where drug mortality rates are among the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58024296">highest in the world</a>. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-3018(19)30036-0">largest outbreak of HIV in the UK in over 30 years</a> has been among people who inject drugs in Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, and is ongoing. </p>
<p>Krykant’s unsanctioned Glasgow OPC operated for nine months. It oversaw <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955395922000901?via%3Dihub">894 injection events involving heroin and cocaine</a> and treated nine potentially fatal overdoses. Krykant describes its impact as “overwhelming”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I saw people move from groin injecting to injecting in less dangerous areas [of the body] due to having a warm and well-lit environment where they could take their time and not feel rushed. Myself and the other volunteers who helped run the service witnessed people feeling cared about for the first time. The service turned into a beacon of safety for many. We started supplying basic things like warm clothing, drinks and sanitary products. On one occasion, we bought a wheelchair for a person who had lost a leg.</p>
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<p>The Glasgow police largely tolerated the facility, although on one occasion <a href="https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/drugs-activist-peter-krykant-charged-22897048">Krykant was cautioned</a> for refusing to let officers into the van while it was being used. And the media were fascinated: during its brief time of operation, reports about the van appeared in UK and international media including the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/21/world/europe/scotland-glasgow-drugs-van.html">New York Times</a>.</p>
<p>Due to health issues, Krykant reluctantly closed the facility in the summer of 2021. The van was donated to the <a href="https://transformdrugs.org/about-us">Transform Drug Policy Foundation</a> and now tours the UK, demonstrating what an OPC would look like in practice. Krykant believes it served a vital purpose in demonstrating that “it could be possible to set up and run OPCs within current frameworks”. He is still hopeful that a formal facility will be commissioned in the near future – but the UK government remains opposed to their introduction.</p>
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<img alt="Inside of ambulance converted as an OPC" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489119/original/file-20221011-23-c159bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489119/original/file-20221011-23-c159bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489119/original/file-20221011-23-c159bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489119/original/file-20221011-23-c159bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489119/original/file-20221011-23-c159bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489119/original/file-20221011-23-c159bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489119/original/file-20221011-23-c159bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The mobile OPC was stocked with clean needles, sharps bins and supplies of the overdose reversal drug naloxone.</span>
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<h2>Campaigning amid controversy</h2>
<p>Pat Hudson is an emeritus professor of history at Cardiff University. In 2017, her son Kevin was found dead in a locked toilet in a department store in the Welsh town of Carmarthen. He was 32 and an experienced tree surgeon.</p>
<p>Kevin Hudson died of cardiac arrest and brain damage after injecting heroin. He had been battling addiction and was making progress, but died alone after the kind of accidental overdose that kills <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsrelatedtodrugpoisoninginenglandandwales/2021registrations">thousands of people</a> in the UK every year. According to his mother:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If Kevin had had somewhere safe to go in the town to inject, without fear of criminalisation or stigma and with a medically qualified person in attendance, he would certainly not have locked himself in a toilet where no one could reach him.</p>
</blockquote>
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<img alt="Pat Hudson and her son Kevin" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489130/original/file-20221011-16-2mkqj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489130/original/file-20221011-16-2mkqj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489130/original/file-20221011-16-2mkqj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489130/original/file-20221011-16-2mkqj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489130/original/file-20221011-16-2mkqj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489130/original/file-20221011-16-2mkqj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489130/original/file-20221011-16-2mkqj6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Pat Hudson with her son Kevin, who died of an overdose in 2017.</span>
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<p>Hudson, a member of the campaign group <a href="https://anyoneschild.org/about/">Anyone’s Child: Families for Safer Drug Control</a>, is calling for OPCs to be introduced as a way of providing this kind of life-saving support. While first and foremost about saving lives, she says this is also about “providing medical and addiction advice for those seeking help”.</p>
<p>OPCs <a href="https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/system/files/publications/2734/POD_Drug%20consumption%20rooms.pdf">have been found to</a> successfully reduce the risk of blood-borne virus transmission, signpost clients to treatment services, provide advice on safer consumption, and reduce levels of public injecting and discarded needles. By creating a non-stigmatising environment, they can also attract people who might otherwise not come into contact with support services – or who previously had unhappy experiences in treatment.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/another-new-high-for-drug-deaths-in-england-and-wales-heres-what-needs-to-change-187548">Another new high for drug deaths in England and Wales – here's what needs to change</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/substance-misuse-treatment-for-adults-statistics-2020-to-2021/adult-substance-misuse-treatment-statistics-2020-to-2021-report">More than 300,000 people</a> are thought to use opiates or crack cocaine regularly in England, of whom about half are in treatment. But even for those accessing such services, treatment can only help if they are kept safe and alive when they are using. For people such as Kevin Hudson, a lack of safe drug consumption spaces significantly increases the risk of death.</p>
<p>In December 2021, in response to record levels of drug-related deaths, the UK government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/largest-ever-increase-in-funding-for-drug-treatment">committed more than £700m</a> to improving treatment services in England and Wales – a desperately needed injection of money following years of disinvestment. But despite organisations such as the harm reduction charity <a href="https://cranstoun.org/who-we-are/">Cranstoun</a> signalling their intention to open OPCs when conditions allow, there are no plans for piloting such facilities in the UK government’s ten-year <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1079147/From_harm_to_hope_PDF.pdf">drug strategy</a> for England.</p>
<p><strong>Deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales:</strong></p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488535/original/file-20221006-7785-jjy784.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488535/original/file-20221006-7785-jjy784.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/488535/original/file-20221006-7785-jjy784.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488535/original/file-20221006-7785-jjy784.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488535/original/file-20221006-7785-jjy784.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488535/original/file-20221006-7785-jjy784.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488535/original/file-20221006-7785-jjy784.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/488535/original/file-20221006-7785-jjy784.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsrelatedtodrugpoisoninginenglandandwales/2021registrations">Office for National Statistics</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>The UN’s International Narcotics Control Board has stated that OPCs are consistent with international drug control treaties, as long as they are part of a <a href="https://www.incb.org/documents/News/Alerts/Alert_on_Convention_Implementation_Feb_2018.pdf">wider system of drug treatment</a>. But under UK law, allowing the preparation of illicitly purchased drugs for ingestion <a href="https://www.release.org.uk/sites/default/files/pdf/publications/Drug%20Consumption%20Rooms%20-%20Briefing%20for%2017.01.18%20Westminster%20Hall%20debate.pdf">could be construed as illegal</a>.</p>
<p>As things stand, this means anyone operating an OPC could potentially be liable for prosecution. In 2016, Scotland’s largest NHS organisation, <a href="https://www.nhsggc.scot/about-us/who-we-are/">Greater Glasgow and Clyde</a>, recommended that an <a href="https://www.nhsggc.org.uk/media/238302/nhsggc_health_needs_drug_injectors_full.pdf">OPC be opened in Glasgow city centre</a> in response to the high rates of drug-related deaths and the emergence of an HIV outbreak, highlighting “widespread support [among] stakeholders from the target population, health services, and organisations representing drug users and their families”.</p>
<p>The lord advocate, Scotland’s chief public prosecutor, was asked to produce a “<a href="https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17572581.lord-advocate-urged-provide-prosecution-immunity-drug-consumption-facility/">letter of comfort</a>” to guarantee such facilities would not be a subject for prosecution. This proposal <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201919/cmselect/cmscotaf/44/4407.htm">was not successful</a> and the current lord advocate has stated she cannot make an activity unlawful, nor grant immunity from prosecution. However, in 2021 <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Farchive2021.parliament.scot%2Fparliamentarybusiness%2Freport.aspx%3Fr%3D13315%26i%3D120787&data=05%7C01%7Ct.s.parkes%40stir.ac.uk%7C7cb3733d11254427d68708dad0b179de%7C4e8d09f7cc794ccb9149a4238dd17422%7C0%7C0%7C638051757919369863%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=EZKjoU2K3xIoEC0%2B4o0QFXESUB0mrHKsJ%2Brw%2BZg0g1g%3D&reserved=0">she said</a> she “would be prepared to consider any such future proposal, but it would have to be specific and underpinned by evidence, and it would require fresh consideration”.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong><em>This story is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> and is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects to tackle societal and scientific challenges.</em></p>
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<p>In September 2021, the Scottish <a href="https://drugdeathstaskforce.scot/our-work/drug-law-reform/drug-law-reform-report-summary-of-recommendations-1/">Drug Deaths Taskforce</a> asked the Scottish government to “explore all options within the existing legal framework” that would enable OPCs to be piloted. Many Scottish MPs and MSPs have also called for action, with a <a href="https://www.pauljsweeney.com/membersbill">private members’ bill</a> currently being put through the Scottish parliament. And in January 2022, the UK Faculty of Public Health <a href="https://www.fph.org.uk/media/3412/fph_opc_statement-04-01-2022.pdf">published a letter</a> signed by every royal medical college calling on the UK government to “take steps towards funding [OPC] pilots … to save lives and reduce harm”. Scotland’s minister for drugs confirmed in June 2022 that a new proposal had been <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Farchive2021.parliament.scot%2Fparliamentarybusiness%2Freport.aspx%3Fr%3D13878%26i%3D125839&data=05%7C01%7Ct.s.parkes%40stir.ac.uk%7C7cb3733d11254427d68708dad0b179de%7C4e8d09f7cc794ccb9149a4238dd17422%7C0%7C0%7C638051757919369863%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=VV3ECoRBNbpb5j7FzjzIclDgLqpWWgzksvhHwEAIQEs%3D&reserved=0">submitted for consideration by the Crown Office.</a> </p>
<p>The UK government’s <a href="https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/politics/tory-mp-kit-malthouse-rejects-27006317">consistent refusal</a> to introduce legal reforms to protect OPC providers from the threat of criminal sanctions has set Westminster against the Scottish government, which views OPCs as an important tool in its broader <a href="https://www.gov.scot/policies/alcohol-and-drugs/national-mission/">public health-led response to drug harms</a>.</p>
<p>Recognising that a policy change in Westminster looks unlikely in the short term, the Scottish minister for drugs, Angela Constance, <a href="https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/20168444.snp-ministers-give-persuading-uk-government-allow-safe-drugs-consumption-rooms/">said</a> the Scottish government is “leaving no stone unturned to deliver clinically and legally safe consumption facilities”. In contrast, according to Hudson, the UK government is “digging its heels in” because OPCs are seen as condoning illegal drug use. She explains:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is a public health crisis with drug mortality which must be tackled … There needs to be a change of mindset among politicians so that they see public health policies on illicit drug consumption as a vote winner. The general public are mostly ready for this – it would not be hard to sell.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What the evidence tells us about OPCs</h2>
<p><a href="https://vancouver.ca/people-programs/safe-injection-site-and-needle-exchange.aspx#:%7E:text=Insite%2C%20Vancouver's%20supervised%20injection%20site,the%20care%20of%20medical%20professionals.">Insite</a> was the first sanctioned and supervised injecting site to open in North America. Founded in 2003, it operates in the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood of Vancouver, a city that for decades has <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3665976/">experienced high levels</a> of homelessness, street injecting and drug-related deaths.</p>
<p>The Insite facility provides an array of booths, each with a table, mirror and waste bin. According to <a href="http://www.vch.ca/public-health/harm-reduction/supervised-consumption-sites/insite-user-statistics">2019 data</a>, there is space for more than 300 injections a day. People need not be registered and there is no form-filling on arrival. In almost two decades, there have been thousands of overdose events but no fatalities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Sterile booths for injections at the Insite OPC" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489118/original/file-20221011-20-j4ttyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489118/original/file-20221011-20-j4ttyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489118/original/file-20221011-20-j4ttyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489118/original/file-20221011-20-j4ttyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489118/original/file-20221011-20-j4ttyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489118/original/file-20221011-20-j4ttyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489118/original/file-20221011-20-j4ttyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vancouver’s Insite facility provides a safe space for more than 300 injections each day.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Insite also offers a key source of evidence on the effectiveness and impact of OPCs. A <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)62353-7/fulltext">2011 study published in the Lancet</a> found that, in the two years after Insite opened, the rate of overdose deaths within 500 metres of the facility fell by 35%, compared with 9% in the rest of Vancouver. More recently, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002964">a six-year cohort study</a> found that people who used Insite and other OPCs in Vancouver at least weekly were almost 50% less likely to die of any cause than other people regularly using drugs.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/pods/drug-consumption-rooms_en">Evidence</a> from Insite and other established OPCs shows that these centres reduce risky activities such as needle sharing while increasing engagement with health and treatment services. This led the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reducing-opioid-related-deaths-in-the-uk">UK government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs</a> to call for them to be considered for the UK in 2016. </p>
<p>Similarly, a 2019 review of global evidence <a href="https://ukhsa.koha-ptfs.co.uk/cgi-bin/koha/opac-retrieve-file.pl?id=9ae9fae9b094afc8c0656db4bccd44d5">commissioned by Public Health England</a> found that OPCs were effective in reducing high-risk injecting behaviours, drug-related litter and ambulance callouts while increasing access to education and other forms of social support. This review also confirmed there was no evidence of increased crime in the vicinity of OPCs.</p>
<p>Over the three decades since the first facility opened in Bern, the number of lives saved in OPCs across the world is likely to be enormous. And crucially, people who use drugs <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32331859/">say they are likely to use OPCs</a> if they are made available.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7gIyBMt2BEk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A tour of Vancouver’s Insite supervised injection facility.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Absolute and utter hope’</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9180147/">Over a six-month period</a>, our research team spoke to senior figures throughout Scotland – from the government and the criminal justice system to local health and social care teams and charities – to explore their views on OPCs and what they saw as barriers to adoption. </p>
<p>We also spoke to <a href="https://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12954-022-00679-5">family members</a> of people who use drugs, most of whom were overwhelmingly supportive. Many suggested that OPCs could provide a lifeline where other interventions had failed – and above all, “hope, just absolute and utter hope” that their loved ones could be kept safe when facing their most difficult and dangerous moments.</p>
<p>Many were bewildered as to why OPCs had not been introduced already. One family member described a “lightbulb moment” when she found herself thinking: “I can’t believe we don’t do this as a humane society.” Another asked: “Why would we not want to keep everybody safe?”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/scotland-wont-prosecute-personal-possession-of-class-a-drugs-but-outdated-laws-prevent-deeper-reforms-168333">Scotland won't prosecute personal possession of class A drugs, but outdated laws prevent deeper reforms</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As well as recognising the lifesaving potential of OPCs, local decision makers highlighted their value in reducing levels of public injecting and discarded needles – often the main concern for the general public who, as one respondent put it, just “want rid” of drug problems in their area. Among decision makers and family members alike, OPCs represented a compassionate, non-judgmental approach to drug issues. They mattered not only because they could save lives, but because they stood for an alternative response to drug problems more broadly. As one family member put it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>By creating these drug consumption rooms, what we are really saying is: “We have an issue as a society – and it’s our responsibility to look after these people.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Krykant, the pioneer of Glasgow’s mobile OPC van, sees this as a key point in understanding the full value of OPCs, concluding: “Although all data gathered is important, the human factor builds the most compelling case for implementation of these services.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rkxLv3Q5a2k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>So why the resistance to introducing OPCs?</h2>
<p>In June 2022, Alexis Goosdeel, director of the <a href="https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/about_en">EU’s leading illicit drugs authority</a>, described OPCs as “<a href="https://idpc.net/alerts/2022/06/supervised-drug-use-centres-key-to-reducing-harm-says-eu-expert">key instruments</a>” in reducing drug harms. Goosdeel’s comments reflect a broad consensus within the drug research community – but this view is not shared by everybody.</p>
<p>The UK government argues that evidence of the effectiveness of OPCs is not sufficient to justify their introduction. In part, as <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WR1261.html">one major review</a> noted in 2018, this is because “estimating the overall effect of [OPCs] on fatal and nonfatal overdoses is difficult”. </p>
<p>Preventing individual deaths does not automatically mean overall drug mortality rates will be reduced. Someone who has had an overdose reversed in an OPC may still suffer a fatal overdose later in another location. And OPCs often operate alongside other services such as the provision of take-home <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naloxone">naloxone</a> and drug treatment services such as methadone, which <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2780655">significantly reduce death rates</a>.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://content.health.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/migrated/files/collections/research-and-reports/r/review-of-the-medically-supervised-injecting-room-june-2020.pdf">recent review of an OPC in Melbourne</a>, Australia, estimated that, of the 271 “extremely serious overdoses” that were treated in its first two years of operation, between 21 and 27 deaths were avoided. But again it is difficult to isolate the impact on drug deaths from other factors; <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/add.14747">some have argued</a> that a “heroin drought” skewed the initial results from Sydney’s Medically Supervised Injecting Centre.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Interior of OPC in Copenhagen" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489120/original/file-20221011-12-6a2qut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489120/original/file-20221011-12-6a2qut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489120/original/file-20221011-12-6a2qut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489120/original/file-20221011-12-6a2qut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489120/original/file-20221011-12-6a2qut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489120/original/file-20221011-12-6a2qut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489120/original/file-20221011-12-6a2qut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Copenhagen’s H17, which opened in 2016, is one of the world’s largest supervised injection facilities.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Taken alongside the practical difficulties of gathering data on people who are often hard to engage with, OPCs are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/dar.12919">not practical or ethical</a> for the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6235704/">randomised controlled trial</a> (RCT) or large-scale cohort evaluations that may be expected for other medical interventions – although <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ije/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/ije/dyac120/6606118?redirectedFrom=fulltext">a recent French study</a> applied some of these methods and shown positive results. However, as a <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(22)00038-X/fulltext">recent Lancet commentary on OPCs pointed out</a>, “many public health interventions have been introduced without RCTs when their mechanism of action is clearly understood”.</p>
<p>Our study found that local decision makers are most concerned about whether OPCs are cost-effective compared with other interventions. Here, the question of how to interpret the available evidence – and decide what type of evidence is needed to justify investment – takes centre stage.</p>
<p>While the UK government points to a lack of RCT evaluations, local decision makers are more pragmatic. Although there was a recognition that politically, the evidence would need to be extremely strong to get the green light, it was felt that such evidence could be produced through pilots or studies from other countries, people with experience of drug use, and public perceptions. Most of those we interviewed in Scotland felt the available evidence was sufficient to move forward to implementation.</p>
<p>But anyone hoping to develop local evidence faces a Catch-22. Building evidence requires opening an OPC – yet this is blocked by the UK government on the grounds that the available evidence is insufficient. Without the reassurance of central government support or formal agreements with local police, many local authorities and service providers lack the confidence to go ahead.</p>
<h2>What do families and communities want?</h2>
<blockquote>
<p>[When] she is living with you and she wakes up and she’s shaking and she is dreadful, you can say: “Do you want me to take you to the consumption room?” Hope … that’s all you are left with in the end. Hope that one day they say: “I don’t want to live like this anymore.” (Mother of a person who uses drugs)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Among the family members we interviewed, OPCs were attractive not only because of the evidence that they save lives, but because they gave new hope and the promise of greater dignity for their loved ones:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[An OPC] lends itself to people being given just a bit of space to say: “Actually I would want to do something different here.” I think it’s the gap between what we say and what we do at a deeply compassionate level. It’s easier to blame and shame and stigmatise people and see them as less than human, rather than see them as your own son, daughter, niece, nephew or uncle.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Communities affected by visible public drug consumption, however, often have different priorities. As a number of our participants pointed out, OPCs also need the support of these wider community members if they are to be successful.</p>
<p>In the past, community support for OPCs has often been strongest when large-scale drug scenes – such as emerged in parts of Germany and Switzerland in the 1980s and in Sydney in the 1990s – became a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/14659891.2016.1143049">pressing social problem</a>. More recently, the dramatic rise in UK drug deaths has raised the political pressure for action. However, public concern over visible drug consumption, especially when many people find it threatening or morally wrong, does not necessarily translate into support for OPCs.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0955395918302706">A US survey</a> found that many people believed money spent on OPCs would be better allocated to more conventional treatment and recovery programmes. Some community groups have expressed concern that OPCs would <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13698575.2017.1291918">create a “honeypot effect”</a>, not only attracting people using drugs but also dealers to the vicinity. However, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S095539592030195X?via%3Dihub">other research suggests</a> that if people hear stories about the experiences of people who use OPCs (or their families), rather than just being presented with statistics and data, then support increases.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-medically-supervised-injection-facility-matters-for-victoria-and-for-more-inclusive-mental-health-support-79761">A medically supervised injection facility matters for Victoria – and for more inclusive mental health support</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>When a proposal to open an OPC in the Richmond district of Melbourne was announced in 2017, there was widespread opposition from residents who feared it would encourage higher levels of drug use, increase crime, and attract more dealers to their areas. A <a href="https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/file_uploads/Review_of_the_Medically_Supervised_Injecting_Room_June_2020_WsP785dN.pdf">later evaluation</a> found that, while a large number of deaths had been prevented and ambulance callouts had fallen by 25% near the facility, some local residents reported no perceived change to factors such as the number of discarded needles – and a degree of opposition to the OPC remained.</p>
<p>But this was in stark contrast to the experience in <a href="https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/aod/resources/Documents/msic-kpmg.pdf">Sydney</a>. In 2010, ten years after its OPC opened, the amount of street injecting reported by residents had halved, and there was a “considerable reduction” in reported levels of discarded needles in the vicinity – leading to high levels of local support. The Insite centre in Vancouver also continues to enjoy high levels of public support for similar reasons.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ms9CV2m59MA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.appgdrugpolicyreform.org/news/drugattitudespolling2022">In a recent UK-wide poll</a>, just under half the respondents supported OPCs and only 18% opposed their introduction. Yet for some sceptics, <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-01-17/debates/1681A3C1-E6A4-4E10-8E38-8B4B240D5B67/DrugConsumptionRooms">the basic principle of facilitating drug consumption</a> is wrong, especially without a clear requirement that visitors take steps towards recovery.</p>
<p>Under former prime minister Boris Johnson, the UK’s Conservative government argued that OPCs ran counter to their “tough” approach to drugs – not only enabling but even “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-58092735">encouraging use</a>” (a claim not supported by any available evidence). Because it is much easier <em>not</em> to open an OPC, political inertia and institutional risk-aversion are always liable to prevent innovation.</p>
<p>Settling these controversies is about more than just appealing to evidence. <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1745-9133.12566">Recent research</a> confirmed what, to a casual observer, may seem obvious: even what you call these centres makes a difference. The label “drug consumption room”, for example, garners less public support than “overdose prevention centre” because one sounds like a facility designed to enable drug use to take place while the other frames it as saving lives. Getting public clarity on what OPCs actually do is therefore critical.</p>
<p>That OPCs save individual lives is beyond dispute. But they do so by accepting that creating safer environments for otherwise high-risk forms of drug consumption can be the right thing to do in certain circumstances. For some people, that will never be an acceptable principle – and the high level of stigmatisation towards people who inject drugs <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306460318307925">in political discussions</a> only serves to reinforce this view. For many others, however, it sits at the heart of a compassionate and effective approach to reducing drug harms. </p>
<h2>Will OPCs happen in the UK?</h2>
<p>While every participant in our research supported piloting OPCs in principle, almost all decision makers felt the power to give the green light lay elsewhere. In Scotland, the issue is seen to have been kicked around like a political football, while the UK government insists that OPCs are a distraction from other treatment responses and claims advocates view them as a kind of silver bullet (something our participants strongly disputed).</p>
<p>Despite <a href="https://transformdrugs.org/mda-at-50/parliamentary-support">many expert voices arguing</a> that after more than 50 years, a review of the UK’s primary drug legislation, the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1971/38/contents">1971 Misuse of Drugs Act</a>, is urgently needed, it seems unlikely that this act will be amended in the short term at least. Senior police authorities (such as regional police and crime commissioners in England), however, could agree to memorandums of understanding, guaranteeing that local police will not enforce the act in ways that prevent OPCs from operating. This would be possible without any change to primary legislation but relies on senior local leaders championing their case.</p>
<p>There is certainly growing support for OPCs in English regions such as the <a href="https://www.westmidlands-pcc.gov.uk/drugs-2/">West Midlands</a> that have pressing drug problems. Should regional police forces arrive at agreements to allow local adoption, there are organisations ready to create facilities and a considerable body of evaluation literature to support effective service designs. Importantly, there are also researchers in place to ensure that new services are rigorously evaluated.</p>
<p>OPCs can only ever be one part of society’s response to drug dependency and harm. But without the opportunity to pilot them locally in the UK, it will never be possible to assess what the scale of that contribution could be, or how many lives would be saved. In the face of a growing drug death crisis, the need for action is more urgent than ever.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>For you: more from our <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Insights series</a>:</em></p>
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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/liverpools-unsung-covid-heroes-how-the-citys-arts-scene-became-a-life-support-network-192776?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">Liverpool’s unsung COVID heroes: how the city’s arts scene became a life support network
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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-magic-of-touch-how-deafblind-people-taught-us-to-see-the-world-differently-during-covid-191698?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=InsightsUK">The magic of touch: how deafblind people taught us to ‘see’ the world differently during COVID
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</a></em></p></li>
</ul>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Nicholls was previously chief executive officer of the Transform Drug Policy Foundation, which received funding from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to support research on overdose prevention centres (OPCs). He received funding from the Scottish government's Drug Deaths Taskforce for research on OPCs, and is currently a trustee of the harm reduction charity Cranstoun. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsten Trayner has been a lead author and co-author relating to OPC research in the UK, including the evaluation of the unsanctioned OPC in Glasgow featured in this article. She has received funding from the Scottish government for an unrelated project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tessa Parkes received funding from the Scottish government’s Drug Deaths Taskforce research fund for a study on OPCs which is referred to in this article. She sits on the Scottish government’s National Drugs Mission Oversight Group and has received funding from a range of public and not for profit funders.</span></em></p>There are around 200 supervised injection facilities around the world but the UK government remains opposed to their introductionJames Nicholls, Senior Lecturer in Public Health, University of StirlingKirsten Trayner, Research Fellow, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityTessa Parkes, Professor of Substance Use and Inclusion Health, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1951312022-11-23T19:15:26Z2022-11-23T19:15:26ZWe found Britain’s greenest city centre – and its least green<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497023/original/file-20221123-20-jvl0nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Meet the winner: Exeter.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Panoptic Motion / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Some of Britain’s city centres are filled with trees and parks, while others have little vegetation to break up the bricks, tarmac and concrete. Such differences aren’t just aesthetic: they affect whether <a href="https://www.wild-ideas.org.uk/2020/10/24/wildlife-corridors-in-urban-habitats/">animals can move around</a>, and they have implications for <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/5/2227">human</a> <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542519622001711">health</a> and social equity. </p>
<p>That’s why we wanted to properly assess how green these cities are. In <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0276962">our latest research</a>, now published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, we looked at all 68 municipalities in Great Britain with populations of at least 100,000. City centres were defined using Consumer Data Research Centre spatial datasets, which use complex statistics to demarcate <a href="https://data.cdrc.ac.uk/dataset/retail-centre-boundaries-and-open-indicators">retail boundaries</a>. You can think of the boundaries as similar to “central business districts”. In Sheffield, for instance, the city centre is the entire area within the central ring road. London is a special case; because it is so large, it has several of these areas. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497012/original/file-20221123-14-ai1m74.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="satellite map of a city" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497012/original/file-20221123-14-ai1m74.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497012/original/file-20221123-14-ai1m74.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497012/original/file-20221123-14-ai1m74.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497012/original/file-20221123-14-ai1m74.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497012/original/file-20221123-14-ai1m74.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497012/original/file-20221123-14-ai1m74.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497012/original/file-20221123-14-ai1m74.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sheffield has plenty of green space – but not within the city centre ring road.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://earth.google.com/web/search/Sheffield/@53.38228334,-1.4755546,85.85933008a,14991.83346175d,35y,0h,0t,0r/data=CigiJgokCcl9X6aRZD9AEQL1GAcLQD9AGRh2g9niQkFAIXKyyxTPGkFA">Google Earth</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For each of these cities, we assessed three metrics of “greenness”: 1) tree cover using an algorithm to randomly sample recent aerial imagery, 2) the presence of green spaces using open-source data from Ordnance Survey (Great Britain’s national mapping agency), and 3) the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), which uses satellite observations of light absorption and reflection to measure vegetation cover in a given area. </p>
<h2>Exeter greenest, Glasgow least green</h2>
<p>Combining all three metrics into a single greenness score, we found that Exeter’s urban centre ranks highest, followed by Islington in London, Bristol, Bournemouth and Cambridge. </p>
<p>Glasgow’s urban centre is the least green, with Middlesbrough, Sheffield, Liverpool and Leeds also in the lowest five. Tree coverage is probably the most relatable way to describe the differences: trees cover 12% of the total land area of Exeter city centre, but just 2% of Glasgow’s.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497020/original/file-20221123-20-6864n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="City centre buildings, grey sky" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497020/original/file-20221123-20-6864n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497020/original/file-20221123-20-6864n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497020/original/file-20221123-20-6864n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497020/original/file-20221123-20-6864n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497020/original/file-20221123-20-6864n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497020/original/file-20221123-20-6864n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497020/original/file-20221123-20-6864n3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Greenless Glasgow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pixabay.com/photos/glasgow-scotland-city-tourism-2997986/">leppäkerttu/pixabay</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Exeter, a small city in England’s remote south-west, largely avoided the rapid industrial growth of better-connected cities. This is apparent today in its leafy streets and the meadows along the River Exe. In contrast, places like Glasgow and Sheffield were massive industrial powerhouses with considerable urban sprawl, though they do still have luscious parks outside of their city centres. </p>
<h2>North-south green divide</h2>
<p>It is worth noting that the top five urban centres are all in the south of England, while the bottom five are ex-industrial areas in the north or Scotland. In fact, only 25% of all northern cities are in the top half of the greenness table. Further analysis uncovered a statistical link between a lower greenness score and higher levels of deprivation, as measured according to crime risk, health, economics, education, and other related metrics. In addition, areas with larger populations had lower tree coverage and vegetation index scores.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497024/original/file-20221123-22-3xhmd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="City greenness infographic" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497024/original/file-20221123-22-3xhmd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/497024/original/file-20221123-22-3xhmd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1248&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497024/original/file-20221123-22-3xhmd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1248&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497024/original/file-20221123-22-3xhmd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1248&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497024/original/file-20221123-22-3xhmd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497024/original/file-20221123-22-3xhmd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/497024/original/file-20221123-22-3xhmd6.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The top and bottom five.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anne-Lise Paris / PLOS</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sheffield – where the study was conducted – is often billed as having one of the highest <a href="https://eurocities.eu/cities/sheffield/#:%7E:text=And%2520with%252061%2525%2520green%2520space,people%2520of%2520any%2520European%2520city.">densities of trees</a> out of all European cities. But this is due to the vast swathes of trees in the suburban areas and surrounding fringe of the Peak District national park. Our work shows that Sheffield actually has the lowest city centre tree cover out of all the cities included in the study.</p>
<p>The reasons for the north-side divide are complex and can depend on decisions made centuries ago and development since. Clearly, some urban centres invested in parks and tree-lined avenues more than others in the past. Industry and war efforts then contributed to urban sprawl and reduced natural features in certain urban centres, particularly in northern England and Scotland. </p>
<p>In the 19th century, city planners often <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=AsAtDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=65.%2509Johnston+M.+Street+trees+in+Britain:+A+history.+Windgather+Press;+2017+Jul+31.&ots=nxNO6l0zMd&sig=pjEBatvqzZy3418lVPSjSm6A-UA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">incorporated street trees</a>, particularly in affluent areas. These decisions were influenced by an admiration of continental European boulevards and the wellbeing benefits of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=AsAtDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=65.%2509Johnston+M.+Street+trees+in+Britain:+A+history.+Windgather+Press;+2017+Jul+31.&ots=nxNO6l0zMd&sig=pjEBatvqzZy3418lVPSjSm6A-UA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">“garden cities” and “spa towns”</a>. This is exemplified by the “<a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsbl.2018.0082">luxury effect</a>” whereby affluent neighbourhoods record higher biodiversity in cities around the world, often dictated by <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-racism-and-classism-affect-natural-ecosystems-144751">structural classism and racism</a>. </p>
<p>Differences in historical development have therefore left us with leafy urban centres like Exeter’s, and others with far less greenness. The question remains why over time such imbalances have not been addressed.</p>
<p>It’s an important question as around <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/urbandevelopment/overview">70% of the world’s population</a> will soon live in urban environments. In the UK, <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-kingdom/urban-population">84% of people</a> already do. This rapid rise in urbanisation has led to a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169204618301646?casa_token=Dk_IOdmii9QAAAAA:yYWbH_vdzM1OHt_myDWQQj8tQjTeC14fgBmpytna0zvliWItPEXtnljp5PdXH8bSh9bFleoH">disconnect between humans and nature</a> as we often fail to create healthy and biodiverse spaces, especially in city centres. </p>
<p>But there is at least one reason to be hopeful. Urban centres in Great Britain and other areas of the world are changing, especially as digital shopping means many <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/10/5631">retail outlets are closing</a>. This <a href="https://theconversation.com/high-street-strategy-recovery-will-take-more-than-street-parties-and-more-bins-164729">is a problem</a> in many ways, but it’s also an opportunity. The decline of in-person shopping gives us a chance to re-envision and redevelop urban centres to enhance their green spaces.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>At the time of the study on which this article is based, Jake Robinson was undertaking a PhD at the University of Sheffield, UK. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Brindley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Where does your city rank?Jake M Robinson, Ecologist and Researcher, Flinders UniversityPaul Brindley, Senior Lecturer, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1914612022-11-02T12:06:05Z2022-11-02T12:06:05ZWhat contemporary feminism owes to Victorian textile workers in Glasgow<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486806/original/file-20220927-14-tc8raz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C1985%2C1155&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Glasgow's harbour on the River Clyde was an artery of the industrial revolution.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As well as being Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow was its industrial heart. Central to the civic story, is the River Clyde, famed as a global shipbuilding hub in the 20th century. But the Clyde, along with an abundant supply of coal, also made Glasgow the ideal location for the textile industry. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Scotland/The-Industrial-Revolution">In the 1820s</a>, spinning mills, weaving mills, dye houses and garment factories sprang up, dominated the urban landscape.</p>
<p>Access to the public sphere and the professional world had been the prerogative of men in the 1800s. But the textile industry presented an opportunity for women. From the introduction of automatic looms and sewing machines, machinery became less physically demanding to operate. That gave women an advantage, and in Glasgow, they began to step out of their homes to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25530560">claim a place on the factory floor</a>.</p>
<p>Men remained dominant in managerial positions. Women were paid on average between <a href="https://eh.net/encyclopedia/women-workers-in-the-british-industrial-revolution/">one third and one half of what men earned</a>. In response, Glasgow’s pioneering female workers began a struggle to profoundly change the conditions for women living and working around the world. It would take decades, but they eventually enabled their fellow women to gain visibility and greater rights, both in the workplace and throughout society.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A painted portrait of a 19th-century woman in a black dress with a white collar and a red bow" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474326/original/file-20220715-26-dy01pt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474326/original/file-20220715-26-dy01pt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474326/original/file-20220715-26-dy01pt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474326/original/file-20220715-26-dy01pt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=578&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474326/original/file-20220715-26-dy01pt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474326/original/file-20220715-26-dy01pt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/474326/original/file-20220715-26-dy01pt.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=727&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Emily Patmore, 1851, by John Everett Millais.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://uploads0.wikiart.org/images/john-everett-millais/emily-patmore-1851.jpg">Wikiart</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I have been sifting through research and documents as part of my doctoral studies and they reveal more about the attitudes and barriers these groundbreaking women faced. Such insight into these lives makes their achievements all the more remarkable.</p>
<p>As Glasgow’s textile industry expanded in the 1800s, women represented a rising percentage of the workforce. As the municipal archives show, the city had 403,120 inhabitants in 1861, 58% of whom were women. Of these, 65% were working women, the majority of whom were employed by the textile industries. They came to be seen as a plentiful supply of cheap labour and were, as historian Judith Walkowitz has said, the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/prostitution-and-victorian-society/0D62DC0E48D49A3FA0630DBAD4DCB35B">“symbol of industrial exploitation”</a>.</p>
<h2>Factory work and sexuality</h2>
<p>The association of women and machines was in itself controversial and prompted a fierce debate. As women shifted into factory work, they were forced to use looms and other machines for up to 12 hours a day, with repetitive gestures. They became, in the eyes of the male supervisors and foremen, “machine women”, bewitched and disembodied. And when femininity was associated to this strangeness, it elicited fear in men. The men came to think of themselves as inquisitors and the machine became the pillory, with women condemned to subordination.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471159/original/file-20220627-12-f07i21.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471159/original/file-20220627-12-f07i21.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471159/original/file-20220627-12-f07i21.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471159/original/file-20220627-12-f07i21.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=770&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471159/original/file-20220627-12-f07i21.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471159/original/file-20220627-12-f07i21.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/471159/original/file-20220627-12-f07i21.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Saltmarket, 1866: working-class living conditions in Glasgow were considered the worst in the UK.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas Annan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These automaton women still possessed a glimmer of humanity, as men in power at the time saw it: their sexuality. For seamstresses, this was expressed by the perpetual movement of the legs and foot on the pedal. Doctors thought this use of the pedal could induce <a href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/roman_0048-8593_1983_num_13_41_4651">hysteria and excitement</a> in women. The French deputy Charles Benoist wrote in 1904 that mixing men and women in the mills of France and Britain, combined with the lack of privacy, the heat of the coal-fired boilers and the ambient humidity, would exacerbate passions.</p>
<p>The scientific community at the time <a href="https://www.cairn.info/revue-les-cahiers-dynamiques-2013-1-page-31.htm">believed</a> women lacked the imagination needed for tasks that were creative or that required a high level of finish. Women were thus forced into unskilled jobs with little responsibility, and their access to training was limited. To ensure discipline – and to protect men from temptation – factory owners implemented a strict division of tasks according to gender and put female workers under close supervision. They were not, under any circumstances, to be distracted from their work.</p>
<p>The owners and operators of mills thus sought to control women in every way – not just physically and professionally, but also morally.</p>
<h2>The struggle for women’s rights</h2>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490884/original/file-20221020-11-d8nfh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490884/original/file-20221020-11-d8nfh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490884/original/file-20221020-11-d8nfh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490884/original/file-20221020-11-d8nfh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=938&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490884/original/file-20221020-11-d8nfh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1178&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490884/original/file-20221020-11-d8nfh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1178&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490884/original/file-20221020-11-d8nfh8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1178&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Women’s rights leader Anna Munro in Glasgow, circa 1909.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=91329411">Women’s Freedom League</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>Glasgow’s textile industry began to decline with the outbreak of the American Civil War (1861-65). The United States was the sole supplier of cotton to the city’s textile industries, and the conflict led to a breakdown in trade and bankrupted many companies.</p>
<p>As the industrial context became more difficult, working conditions for women worsened. The workplace was competitive, with job insecurity and financial strain. Because men continued to monopolise skilled positions and dominate the management structure, when sexual assaults occurred, women were often reluctant to testify for fear of being dismissed.</p>
<p>Victorian society did not recognise sexual harassment, and male integrity was assumed and protected. If women did speak out, their aggressors were most often left unpunished and the <a href="https://blog.bham.ac.uk/legalherstory/2018/03/20/the-victorian-social-purity-movement-a-noble-pursuit-or-morality-crusade/">fault assigned to female worker</a> and her inherently provocative nature. After all, if such acts occurred in the workplace, how could they really be sexual harassment?</p>
<p>But as early as the 1860s, women workers in Glasgow’s factories began to fight back. The decline of the textile industry exacerbated unemployment and economic difficulty, and working-class women joined forces with middle-class feminists in demanding gender equality at work. In 1883, the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41881697">Co-operative Women’s Guild</a> was established, followed by the <a href="https://libcat.csglasgow.org/web/arena/glasgow-womens-suffrage">Glasgow and West of Scotland Association for Women’s Suffrage</a> (GWSAWS) in 1902. Together, these and other organisations pushed for greater protections for women throughout society.</p>
<p>After 16 years of struggle, in 1918, women in Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom were finally granted the right to vote. These pioneering organisations and the women who founded them played a key role in changing perceptions of women. From the reclusive, demonised worker to the strong, independent force, with full and equal rights.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191461/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fanette Pradon is a doctoral student at the LLSH doctoral school of the University of Grenoble and the ILCEA4 laboratory.</span></em></p>Women in the textile factories of 19th-century Glasgow faced terrible working conditions. In fighting for their rights, they prepared the ground for feminists today.Fanette Pradon, doctorante en civilisation britannique, Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1915862022-10-04T19:06:02Z2022-10-04T19:06:02ZAlmost 200 nations are set to tackle climate change at COP27 in Egypt. Is this just a talkfest, or does the meeting actually matter?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487961/original/file-20221004-22-4jo9ih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C7%2C5168%2C3437&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a crucial meeting for tackling the climate crisis, almost 200 countries will come together <a href="https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/egypt-hosting-cop27-can-it-become-africas-climate-champion">in Egypt</a> at the start of November for a “Conference of the Parties”, or COP27.</p>
<p>You may remember hearing about COP26 in Glasgow about this time last year. It was <a href="https://ukcop26.org/around-120-leaders-gather-at-cop26-in-glasgow-for-last-best-chance-to-keep-1-5-alive/">often hailed</a> as our “last best chance” to keep global warming under 1.5°C this century. </p>
<p>Since then, emissions have reached <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2022/06/30/greenhouse-emissions-rise-to-record-erasing-drop-during-pandemic">record levels</a> after the pandemic downturn. And this year alone, we’ve seen dozens of <a href="https://disasterphilanthropy.org/disasters/">catastrophic disasters</a> ranging from drought in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/somalia-on-the-brink-of-famine-aid-efforts-risk-failing-marginalised-communities-yet-again-190174">Horn of Africa</a> to floods in <a href="https://theconversation.com/pakistan-floods-what-role-did-climate-change-play-189833">Pakistan</a>, South Africa and Australia, and wildfires and heatwaves in Europe, the United States, Mongolia and South America, <a href="https://theconversation.com/2022s-supercharged-summer-of-climate-extremes-how-global-warming-and-la-nina-fueled-disasters-on-top-of-disasters-190546">among others</a>. </p>
<p>As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/10/1129127?utm_source=UN+News+-+Newsletter&utm_campaign=3ec6666237-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_10_03_11_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fdbf1af606-3ec6666237-107091541">said this week</a>:</p>
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<p>On every climate front, the only solution is decisive action in solidarity. COP27 is the place for all countries […] to show they are in this fight and in it together.</p>
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<p>So, as disasters intensify and war rages in Ukraine, what can we expect from this important summit?</p>
<h2>What happens at COP meetings?</h2>
<p>Conferences of the Parties are held under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and this year marks its 30th anniversary since it was established at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. COP27 will be held in Egypt’s resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh. </p>
<p>COPs allow the international community to decide on a fair allocation of responsibility for addressing climate change. That is, who should lead in emissions reduction, who should pay for transitioning to new forms of energy production and who should compensate those already feeling the effects of climate change. </p>
<p>They also allow countries to agree on rules for meeting commitments, or processes to transfer funds and resources from wealthy countries to poorer ones. And they provide opportunities for sharing the latest climate change research.</p>
<p>Just as importantly, COP meetings focus international attention on the climate crisis and responses to it. This creates pressure for countries to make new commitments or, at least, to play a constructive role in negotiations.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-were-at-cop26-it-had-mixed-results-172558">We were at COP26: It had mixed results</a>
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<h2>Is COP27 less important than COP26?</h2>
<p>In some ways, COP27 is less significant than COP26. That meeting, the first for two years after a COVID-19 delay, was the deadline for countries to commit new emissions reduction targets under the rules of the 2015 Paris Agreement. </p>
<p>The agreement allowed countries to make their own commitments, with the expectation these would be ratcheted up every five years. Glasgow was essentially a big test of whether the deal actually worked to increase commitments addressing climate change.</p>
<p>Glasgow was also significant because it was the first COP since the US returned to the fold after the Trump administration’s withdrawal. </p>
<p>By contrast, Sharm el-Sheikh is less a test of the agreement itself. It is more an opportunity for renewed commitment on mitigation and finance, and deciding on next steps for realising these commitments. </p>
<p>But there is still plenty at stake, and a few crucial points of debate loom.</p>
<h2>Will more countries make new commitments?</h2>
<p>The first big test for COP27 will be whether countries make new emissions reduction commitments.</p>
<p>At Glasgow, more than 100 nations committed to new emissions reduction targets. But these commitments still fell well short of what’s needed to reach the goals agreed at Paris.</p>
<p>Instead of providing a pathway <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement#:%7E:text=Its%20goal%20is%20to%20limit,neutral%20world%20by%20mid%2Dcentury">to limit</a> global warming to 1.5°C or 2°C, Glasgow commitments were shown to put the world on track for <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/publications/glasgows-2030-credibility-gap-net-zeros-lip-service-to-climate-action/">a 2.4°C increase</a> by the end of the century. </p>
<p>This would endanger people and ecosystems throughout the world. And that’s assuming those countries even meet the targets.</p>
<p>Despite this, in the lead up to COP27 fewer than 20 countries have provided updates, and only a handful of these <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/climate-target-update-tracker-2022/">have outlined</a> new emissions reduction targets or net-zero commitments. Of these, only India and Australia are among emitters <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/271748/the-largest-emitters-of-co2-in-the-world/">producing more than 1%</a> of global carbon dioxide emissions. </p>
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<h2>Show us the money</h2>
<p>Three big issues around climate finance – <a href="https://unfccc.int/topics/introduction-to-climate-finance#:%7E:text=What%20is%20climate%20finance%3F,that%20will%20address%20climate%20change.">funds to support</a> mitigation and adaptation – also loom in Egypt. </p>
<p>The first is <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02846-3">the failure</a> of developed states to make good on their 2009 commitment to provide US$100 billion per year in funds for developing states. This issue was raised at Glasgow, but hasn’t gone anywhere since. And there’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/wealthy-countries-still-havent-met-their-100-billion-pledge-to-help-poor-countries-face-climate-change-and-the-risks-are-rising-173229">no prospect</a> of this target being met in 2022. </p>
<p>Second, developing countries, including <a href="https://sdg.iisd.org/news/pacific-island-leaders-declare-climate-emergency/">many Pacific nations</a>, will call for greater focus on finance for <a href="https://unfccc.int/topics/adaptation-and-resilience/the-big-picture/new-elements-and-dimensions-of-adaptation-under-the-paris-agreement-article-7">adapting to</a> the impacts of global warming.</p>
<p>So far, most of the funds have been channelled to <a href="https://www.oecd.org/climate-change/finance-usd-100-billion-goal/">mitigation projects</a>, focused on helping developing states reduce their emissions. But as climate change becomes increasingly felt in developing states, funding for adaptation has become even more important.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/flooding-in-pakistan-shows-that-climate-adaptation-requires-international-support-and-regional-co-operation-189853">Flooding in Pakistan shows that climate adaptation requires international support and regional co-operation</a>
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<p>Third, the Paris Agreement included recognition of likely “<a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/cop27-why-is-addressing-loss-and-damage-crucial-for-climate-justice/#:%7E:text=COP27%20is%20a%20chance%20for,the%20needs%20of%20the%20continent">loss and damage</a>”. This refers to destruction wreaked by climate change, where mitigation and adaptation efforts were insufficient to prevent that harm. </p>
<p>At the time, there was no commitment to provide compensation for loss and damage. In Egypt, developing states will likely push harder for financial commitments from the developed world. </p>
<p>The developed world has contributed most significantly to climate change and can better pay to insulate from its effects. But the developing world is least responsible, more likely to feel climate effects and least able to pay for managing those effects.</p>
<p>With the location of these talks in Africa, we can expect these issues to be particularly prominent at COP27. </p>
<h2>The storm clouds of international politics</h2>
<p>While global agreement on climate action has been difficult to achieve in the past, recent international politics cast further shadow over the prospects for genuine cooperation at COP27.</p>
<p>First, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine <a href="https://chinadialogue.net/en/climate/what-is-cop27-this-years-crucial-climate-talks-explained/">has led to</a> rising global inflation, soaring energy prices and increasing international concerns about energy access. All these have taken attention – and even potential funding – from the imperative of climate action. </p>
<p>It also has meant Russia, a <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-climate-laggards-change-russia-like-australia-first-needs-to-overcome-significant-domestic-resistance-170461">key player</a> in international climate talks, could play a spoiler role. </p>
<p>Second, China, the world’s largest emitter, looks similarly disaffected with current global politics. This has been evident in its approach to international climate politics. </p>
<p>For example, in Glasgow, China made a breakthrough agreement with the US on climate cooperation. But this <a href="https://chinadialogue.net/en/climate/roundtable-the-implications-of-the-us-and-china-suspending-climate-cooperation/">was suspended</a> soon after US House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022.</p>
<h2>We’re running out of time</h2>
<p>Egypt’s Minister for International Cooperation <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/25/egypt-climate-finance-top-of-agenda-cop27-talks">announced in May</a> that the focus of international action at COP27 should be moving from “pledges to implementation”.</p>
<p>While this includes targets to reduce emissions, the hosts have also been clear about the need for developed states to make good on meeting their financial commitments. The onset of climate change has clearly made this an urgent concern for many in the developing world who are already feeling its effects. </p>
<p>And clearly, these talks are a pivotal moment for the planet, as we risk <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/27/time-running-out-us-germany-intensify-climate-change-fight">running out of time</a> in our efforts to avoid climate catastrophe.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-peoples-across-the-globe-are-uniquely-equipped-to-deal-with-the-climate-crisis-so-why-are-we-being-left-out-of-these-conversations-171724">Indigenous peoples across the globe are uniquely equipped to deal with the climate crisis – so why are we being left out of these conversations?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191586/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matt McDonald has received funding from the Australian Research Council and the UK Economic and Social Research Council.</span></em></p>Remember hearing about COP26 in Glasgow last year? There’s a lot at stake in this year’s climate summit, so here’s your essential guide to prepare.Matt McDonald, Associate Professor of International Relations, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1895082022-08-30T15:06:03Z2022-08-30T15:06:03ZGlasgow’s relaunched Burrell Collection may be unique and much-loved, but how does it fit into the cultural landscape today?<p>After closing for extensive renovations in 2016, the <a href="https://burrellcollection.com/">Burrell museum</a>, home to one of the greatest personal art collections ever bequeathed to the public, reopened in March 2022. Now, as its first major exhibition opens, it’s hard to avoid the fact that in those six years the political and cultural landscape in Britain has radically changed.</p>
<p>There is much greater focus on issues of provenance, gender and ethnicity, especially in the context of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-africa-to-peckham-how-we-decolonise-culture-by-rehumanising-people-126860">decolonising public spaces</a> – which is basically about ridding these places of the inherent racism that is a direct result of Britain’s imperial endeavours.</p>
<p>The new exhibition looks in detail at the lives of its benefactors, <a href="https://burrellcollection.com/the-collection-the-gift-to-glasgow-and-the-charity-that-cares-for-it/">Sir William and Lady Constance Burrell</a>, through the curation of more than 100 pieces taken from their collection. The Burrells’ Legacy: A Great Gift to Glasgow (which runs till April 16 2023), contains rarely seen works of art including two entirely new additions, a beautifully rendered painting called The Mallard Rising (see main image above) by Joseph Crawhall, and an exquisite bronze sculpture called l'Implorante by little-known French sculptor Camille Claudel (see final image below). </p>
<p>Burrell, the Glasgow-born shipping magnate was one of the UK’s most prolific philanthropists who gifted his collection of 6,000 works of art to his home city in 1944. He continued to develop his collection, aiming for it to be more globally representative, and amassed a total of 9,000 works spanning three continents and 6,000 years, before his death in 1958. </p>
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<h2>Art and empire</h2>
<p>His business success was founded at a time when Victorian Glasgow was the workshop of the world and the second city of the British empire. Burrell was one of a class of industrial elites who used their wealth to increase their social prominence by amassing extraordinary collections of art and antiquities.</p>
<p>So how does this much-loved and unique collection sit within the cultural landscape today? Set against a backdrop of the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, historical monuments and collections are facing public scrutiny like never before. Collections are critiqued around their works’ provenance, history and how their acquisition were funded.</p>
<p>It is down to the integrity of Burrell and his knowledge of the world of art and antiquities at that time that there are so few provenance issues associated with his vast collection, although there have been several recent notable exceptions around <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2vu_p4Ty30">artworks appropriated by the Nazis</a>. </p>
<p>But in Glasgow, people are less concerned about issues pertaining to the Burrell Collection’s imperial context than they are about the cost of upgrading it at a time of <a href="https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/20028907.glasgows-burrell-collection-reopening-targeted-protesters/">closures and failings</a> in the upkeep on commuity facilities across the city.</p>
<p>Still, this doesn’t avoid the fact that the collection was gathered at the height of the British empire, whose social norms and politics of exploitation sit uneasily with the drive to present alternative cultural perspectives today – meaning the voices of the people and cultures where the art originated. </p>
<p>A supporter of living artists, Burrell was guided by prominent art dealers and academics in developing his knowledge around art and history. He was a Scottish Presbyterian with a deep sense of public service, a trustee of several national institutions and was involved in local politics. </p>
<p>He regularly loaned his artworks to different galleries around the country, wishing to share his developing art collection with others. His artworks were particularly prominent at the <a href="https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/history/remembering-glasgow-international-exhibition-1901-23844710">Glasgow International Exhibition</a> of 1901.</p>
<p>His collection offered those who wished to improve their lives through the appreciation of beauty and craft an opportunity to share in his legacy. Today, many regard the quality of the Burrell Collection as unsurpassed, rivalling major international art museums.</p>
<h2>Cultural legacy</h2>
<p>This new exhibition provides an insight into the life of the Burrells and their collections of beautiful objects and works of art. These include artefacts of ancient Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome, Ming Dynasty vases, 19th-century romantic French paintings and delicate Japanese woodcut prints. There is high renaissance stained-glass set against medieval armour, Persian tapestries contrasting delicate lace, and rare pieces of furniture.</p>
<p>The two new acquisitions are stunning: Mallard Rising is a painting by <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/joseph-crawhall">Joseph Crawhall</a>, who was one of the leading <a href="https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/features/glasgow-boys">Glasgow Boys</a> – an influential group of artists who rebelled against stuffy cultural Victorian norms; and the small bronze statue is by <a href="https://www.theartstory.org/artist/claudel-camille/">Camille Claudel</a>, best known as Auguste Rodin’s lover and assistant, but a gifted – if largely unrecognised – sculptor in her own right. </p>
<p>Highlights are the exquisite and intact gilded mummy casing of an Ibis from ancient Egypt; the Chinese Ming Wanli period porcelain jar with five-clawed dragons; Théodore Géricault’s radiant painting The Prancing Grey Horse; the burse for the great Seal of England – a stunning ceremonial bag, embroidered in silk with silver and gilt threads; and finally an old favourite, the dynamic Japanese woodcut print of Shoki the Demon Queller, king of the ghosts.</p>
<p>Ultimately the pieces in this exhibition reflect the preferences, tastes and perspectives of William Burrell and the bias of his era is inherent within this formerly private collection. The broader collection from which these pieces have been chosen holds predominately white, male, Eurocentric, colonial perspectives at its core.</p>
<p>Female works are sparse and mainly comprise lace and embroidery. The exhibition avoids looking at the artworks through any gendered lens and exclusively reflects the taste of Burrell and his wife. The acquisition of the Claudel sculpture by the trust is a gesture towards more inclusivity, but it stands out as an exception rather than the rule.</p>
<p>What does an exhibition like this say about how culture is created? Those in powerful positions shape and influence the nature of art through their purchases and their specific choices around support of the arts. They reinforce their status through being seen as arbiters of good taste and elevate what they think should be valued as art. Art and culture is given to Glaswegians to look at and admire, where perhaps more time could be spent on people making their own culture and art in their own communities.</p>
<p>Even though this collection is of huge historical importance in its own right, it does not give the audience any socio-historical context or try to create a relationship with more modern contemporary types of art. It looks backwards to a time of empire with no attempt to bridge the gap between the world then and the world now. Perhaps the Burrell’s curators will come to consider these broader, modernising themes alongside managing and maintaining such a mammoth collection.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189508/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blane Savage does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Gathered throughout the period of the British empire and gifted to the people of Glasgow, this famous collection is both spectacular and problematical.Blane Savage, Lecturer in Creative Media Practice and New Media Art, University of the West of ScotlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1817072022-05-10T04:20:51Z2022-05-10T04:20:51ZAustralia’s next government must start talking about a ‘just transition’ from coal. Here’s where to begin<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461005/original/file-20220503-26-3kafdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C215%2C5991%2C3377&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>At last year’s Glasgow climate conference, countries lined up to increase their ambition to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Even Australia brought a new target of net-zero emissions by 2050, and signed the final agreement which called for a global “phase down” of coal.</p>
<p>That leaves Australia with two particularly important tasks. First, our power grid – reliant on coal for <a href="https://www.energy.gov.au/publications/australian-energy-update-2021">about half</a> our electricity – must shift to renewable energy. Second, we must dramatically reduce coal exports, which produce about 3% of global CO₂ emissions when burned overseas.</p>
<p>Clearly, Australia needs to have a serious conversation about what the move away from coal means, and how to make it fair. This shift is often called a “just transition”. In our <a href="https://sei.sydney.edu.au/publications/towards-a-just-transition-from-coal-in-australia/">recent study</a> we examined how the idea is understood in Australia.</p>
<p>We found several barriers to a productive conversation about the just transition – not least, an almost complete absence of the federal government in talking about or planning for it. This is a failing the next government must not repeat. </p>
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<img alt="Girl in raincoat holds sign" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462149/original/file-20220510-22-qefie2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/462149/original/file-20220510-22-qefie2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462149/original/file-20220510-22-qefie2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462149/original/file-20220510-22-qefie2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462149/original/file-20220510-22-qefie2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462149/original/file-20220510-22-qefie2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/462149/original/file-20220510-22-qefie2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Amid enormous public pressure, countries at Glasgow agreed to phase down coal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jane Barlow/AP</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>A tale of two coal industries</h2>
<p>First, it’s important to define “just transition”. Many different definitions are used, but include as a key feature that no-one is left behind when making necessary changes to energy and economic systems. </p>
<p>That means sharing the costs and benefits of the changes fairly, supporting workers with new jobs or retraining, and supporting communities through broader economic changes.</p>
<p>Our research into the just transition in Australia involved reviewing academic research and other literature; interviews with key people from civil society, government and industry; and analysis of hundreds of media articles. </p>
<p>Interviewees reported that the limited discussion in Australia about a just transition <a href="https://theconversation.com/3-local-solutions-to-replace-coal-jobs-and-ensure-a-just-transition-for-mining-communities-174883">has focused</a> on the electricity sector, particularly after the sudden, high-profile <a href="https://www.engie.com/en/journalists/press-releases/hazelwood-power-station-australia">closure</a> of Victoria’s Hazelwood Power Station in 2017. Discussion about winding back coal exports was considered too difficult.</p>
<p>Australia’s electricity sector is on the road to decarbonising, and coal-fired power stations are closing faster than expected. In February, for example, Origin Energy <a href="https://www.originenergy.com.au/about/investors-media/origin-proposes-to-accelerate-exit-from-coal-fired-generation/">announced</a> it would close its massive Eraring Power Station in three years – the soonest timeframe allowed under national rules.</p>
<p>But Australia’s coal mining industry dwarfs the power industry. <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/resources-and-energy-quarterly-december-2021">Some 90%</a> of Australia’s black coal is exported. Most ends up in Asia, either in power stations producing electricity or blast furnaces producing steel. Australian coal <a href="https://climateanalytics.org/latest/australia-on-track-to-become-one-of-the-worlds-major-climate-polluters/">contributes more to CO₂ emissions overseas than at home</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-the-major-parties-rate-on-climate-policies-we-asked-5-experts-181790">How do the major parties rate on climate policies? We asked 5 experts</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A coal terminal at seaport" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461009/original/file-20220503-26-odkq0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461009/original/file-20220503-26-odkq0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461009/original/file-20220503-26-odkq0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461009/original/file-20220503-26-odkq0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461009/original/file-20220503-26-odkq0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461009/original/file-20220503-26-odkq0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461009/original/file-20220503-26-odkq0k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australia’s coal mining industry dwarfs the power industry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Just transition is a toxic term</h2>
<p>Our study revealed how “just transition” is a problematic term in Australia. This is largely driven by parts of the media and some politicians who equate the transition with job losses.</p>
<p>This “jobs versus environment” narrative has been cultivated throughout the so-called “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-20/election-2022-climate-wars-scare-tactics/100999798">climate wars</a>” plaguing federal politics over the past 15 or so years. </p>
<p>The narrative was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/24/barnaby-joyce-refuses-to-use-term-energy-transition-because-it-equals-unemployment">exemplified</a> by Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce late last month. Asked if the government planned move away from coal, he said “we’re not going to be saying to people the word ‘transition’ because that equals unemployment”.</p>
<p>The argument resonates in regional communities for two main reasons, according to our interviewees. First, most people calling for a “just transition” <a href="https://theconversation.com/our-social-identity-shapes-how-we-feel-about-the-adani-mine-and-it-makes-the-energy-wars-worse-133686">are not locals</a> and there is a perception they don’t understand the needs and aspirations of coal towns. And second, many communities have had <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-would-a-fair-energy-transition-look-like-107366">bad past experiences</a> of economic restructuring programs. </p>
<p>Many interviewees said it’s important to discuss the just transition, but they avoid using the term explicitly because of the negative connotations.</p>
<h2>Government leadership is sorely needed</h2>
<p>A just transition is not just something environmental or union campaigners are calling for. Our research revealed almost all key stakeholders are willing to plan for it – from industry to community groups, investors and some state and local governments – even if their motivations differ.</p>
<p>These groups also agreed a lack of government leadership was the biggest barrier to action. In particular, the federal government has been almost completely absent from discussions.</p>
<p>Whichever side wins the May 21 election needs to start talking about, and actively planning, a just transition. That means introducing policies to encourage coal power generation and coal exports to wind down, supporting new industries and helping communities manage the change. </p>
<p>Federal government support is crucial because the transition away from coal affects all of society. Governments can set up the stable, long-term institutions and policy mechanisms to support state and local transition efforts.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="man holds lump of coal" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461000/original/file-20220503-20-e7yczk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461000/original/file-20220503-20-e7yczk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461000/original/file-20220503-20-e7yczk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461000/original/file-20220503-20-e7yczk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461000/original/file-20220503-20-e7yczk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461000/original/file-20220503-20-e7yczk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461000/original/file-20220503-20-e7yczk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">As Treasurer, Scott Morrison said Australians should not be afraid of coal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span>
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<h2>How to have productive conversations</h2>
<p>Our research highlighted ways the federal government and others can have productive conversations about the just transition away from coal.</p>
<p>Outsiders going to regional communities should <a href="https://nexteconomy.com.au/work/what-regions-need-on-the-path-to-net-zero-2/">listen</a> to people to understand their aspirations and fears. </p>
<p>Explain that the transition away from coal is already underway, and be explicit about what a just transition means: reducing coal production, but increasing other energy sources and diversifying regional economies.</p>
<p>Make clear that the transition is an opportunity for regional people with skills that society needs as our energy systems change. And explain the <a href="https://theconversation.com/3-local-solutions-to-replace-coal-jobs-and-ensure-a-just-transition-for-mining-communities-174883">practical actions</a> available to help communities undergoing major change.</p>
<p>Finally, centre conversations on livelihoods and communities, rather than wages and workers. The transition will only be just if it involves everyone.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="two men wearing high vis in industrial setting" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461002/original/file-20220503-24-pyv0c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461002/original/file-20220503-24-pyv0c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461002/original/file-20220503-24-pyv0c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461002/original/file-20220503-24-pyv0c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461002/original/file-20220503-24-pyv0c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461002/original/file-20220503-24-pyv0c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461002/original/file-20220503-24-pyv0c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Coal workers are part of, not separate to, their communities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/AAP</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Which way now?</h2>
<p>In the absence of strong government policy, progress towards a just transition has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-transition-from-coal-4-lessons-for-australia-from-around-the-world-115558">challenging</a>. Notwithstanding this, we are seeing change. </p>
<p>Australia’s power generation industry is already transitioning away from coal. And Australia’s two largest export-oriented coal miners, <a href="https://www.glencore.com/dam/jcr:ad341247-c81e-45b4-899d-a7f32a9d69a0/2021-Climate-Change-Report-.pdf">Glencore</a> and <a href="https://www.mining-technology.com/news/bhp-divest-thermal-coal-assets/">BHP</a>, also see clear limits on ongoing coal exports. </p>
<p>The shift away from coal is now inevitable. But if not managed effectively, the transition will be disorderly rather than just. This will damage not just coal communities, but Australia’s economy and international standing. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-world-doesnt-care-about-swings-in-marginal-seats-climate-action-must-spearhead-a-new-australian-foreign-policy-181713">The world doesn’t care about swings in marginal seats. Climate action must spearhead a new Australian foreign policy</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181707/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gareth Edwards receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust for a Leverhulme International Fellowship (2021-22) and from the British Academy under its 'Just transitions to decarbonisation in the Asia Pacific Region' programme. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert MacNeil receives funding from the British Academy under its 'Just transitions to decarbonisation in the Asia Pacific Region' programme.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan M Park receives funding from the British Academy, the Canadian Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and is a Hans Fischer Senior Fellow at the Technical University of Munich. </span></em></p>Researchers found barriers to a productive conversation in Australia about the just transition – not least, an almost complete absence of the federal government in talking about or planning for it.Gareth Edwards, Associate Professor, University of East AngliaRobert MacNeil, Lecturer in Environmental Politics, University of SydneySusan M Park, Professor of Global Governance, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1773822022-03-15T11:58:53Z2022-03-15T11:58:53ZLevelling up: why UK cities are less competitive than their European counterparts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452162/original/file-20220315-17-beq1jp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As one of the UK's 11 core cities, Nottingham lags behind its European counterparts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/hWMwHgkjcKU">Tom Podmore | Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As we emerge from the pandemic-induced economic slump into a world of higher inflation shaped by ongoing crises, like <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-brexit-should-not-stop-uk-cities-from-competing-for-european-capital-of-culture-88115">Brexit</a> and the war in <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-how-the-russian-invasion-could-derail-the-fragile-world-economy-177937">Ukraine</a>, quite how we make the UK more competitive is a burning question. There are many sources of competitiveness but a crucial one is how a nation’s cities perform. In simple terms, there are no successful national economies without successful cities. </p>
<p>In February 2022, the UK government published its <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1052708/Levelling_up_the_UK_white_paper.pdf">plans</a> to level up the country. This white paper highlighted how UK cities, outside of the capital, underperform in relation to their European counterparts.</p>
<p>The government’s findings are not new. And, <a href="https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/heseltine-institute/policybriefs/policybriefing208/">as I have shown</a>, its <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-extra-mayors-level-up-left-behind-regions-what-the-evidence-tells-us-176291">solutions</a> are limited. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.regionalstudies.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Second_Tier_Cities_in_Age_of_Austerity_-_Michael_Parkinson.pdf">My research suggests</a> that the UK would be a more interesting, fairer and a more economically successful country if our cities – outside London – were more powerful. Those countries which are more decentralised and give their cities greater financial resources tend to <a href="https://www.corecities.com/sites/default/files/field/attachment/75699_Core_Cities_Devolution_Book_WEB.pdf">perform better</a>. </p>
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<img alt="A view of a dock in a city, with tall glass buildings reflected in the water." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452163/original/file-20220315-23-8ay2lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452163/original/file-20220315-23-8ay2lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452163/original/file-20220315-23-8ay2lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452163/original/file-20220315-23-8ay2lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452163/original/file-20220315-23-8ay2lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452163/original/file-20220315-23-8ay2lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452163/original/file-20220315-23-8ay2lj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Liverpool’s Albert Dock: the markers of a city’s success include its cultural offerings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/tHeSchqZ1Og">Mark Stuckey | Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
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<h2>Core cities</h2>
<p>Second-tier cities are those outside a nation’s capital (the first tier) which, by virtue of their scale of population and economy, make a significant contribution to national economic productivity. The precise number will vary depending on a country’s size and urban structure. </p>
<p>For practical policy purposes, the UK’s second-tier cities are generally considered to be the 11 members of the <a href="https://www.corecities.com/">Core Cities lobbying group</a>: <a href="https://theconversation.com/brexit-trade-problems-whats-gone-wrong-and-can-it-be-fixed-153270">Belfast</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/birmingham-plans-to-become-a-supersized-low-traffic-neighbourhood-will-it-work-170131">Birmingham</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/stokes-croft-the-saga-of-one-british-neighbourhood-reveals-the-perverse-injustices-of-gentrification-82010">Bristol</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/you-dont-have-to-build-up-or-move-out-to-tackle-urban-density-56318">Cardiff</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/host-city-glasgow-how-it-set-the-standard-for-urban-rebirth-28822">Glasgow</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/channel-4-in-leeds-a-new-hub-to-unlock-creativity-in-the-uks-nations-and-regions-144636">Leeds</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ive-been-chronicling-liverpools-renaissance-for-40-years-heres-why-the-citys-unesco-status-should-not-have-been-removed-164719">Liverpool</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/inspiring-the-devolution-generation-in-greater-manchester-75790">Manchester</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/reality-of-poverty-in-newcastle-england-un-examines-effect-of-austerity-106098">Newcastle</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/cities-are-charging-employers-for-parking-spaces-to-help-fund-local-infrastructure-104094">Nottingham</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/sheffield-what-happened-in-this-city-explains-why-britain-voted-for-brexit-61623">Sheffield</a>. </p>
<p>The key drivers of urban success, which includes economic productivity are as follows: innovation in processes, goods and services; economic and social diversity; the population’s skill levels (its human capital); physical, digital and relational connectivity (nationally and globally); place quality (which includes the public and private provision of culture, healthcare, education and housing); and strategic capacity (the ability of a city’s leadership to mobilise its resources to deliver long-term goals). </p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224892409_Competitive_European_Cities_Where_do_the_Core_Cities_Stand">My research shows</a> that, judged on these metrics, British second-tier cities have long lagged behind their European peers – from Munich and Amsterdam to Lyon, Barcelona, Milan and Copenhagen. </p>
<p>The most comprehensive and up-to-date survey of the international evidence on city performance is <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/9ef55ff7-en/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/9ef55ff7-en">the 2020 study</a> by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This report found that gross value added (GVA) per worker in the UK’s core cities is just 86% of the national average in 2016: that’s a 14% gap, the biggest, in terms of domestic productivity, amid the larger OECD countries. </p>
<p>And the productivity gap between second-tier cities in the UK and elsewhere is even greater. Productivity per worker was 30% higher in Australia and Germany, 26% in the Netherlands, 22% in France and 17% in Italy than in Britain. </p>
<p>The OECD report showed that the extent to which a city is productive directly impacts the living standards and wellbeing of its inhabitants. Workers in these UK cities are less well educated and work in less productive sectors of the economy. Unemployment rates are higher. Their export of goods and services is lower than the UK average. They generate relatively few patents. </p>
<p>Deprivation is higher, meanwhile, with the number of deprived neighbourhoods over three times the national average. Income levels, and the educational performance of school students are lower. And housing costs are high, by international standards. </p>
<p>Further, these cities boast lower levels of public transport provision than in Europe, leading to more peak-time congestion. This in turn limits regional productivity. </p>
<p>Lastly, UK core cities are fiscally constrained and more dependent on national government funding. They receive up to 68% of their revenue from the state, compared with an average of 35% in the other 35 OECD countries. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An historic town hall building with manicured lawns and benches." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452166/original/file-20220315-17-ujj784.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452166/original/file-20220315-17-ujj784.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452166/original/file-20220315-17-ujj784.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452166/original/file-20220315-17-ujj784.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452166/original/file-20220315-17-ujj784.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452166/original/file-20220315-17-ujj784.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452166/original/file-20220315-17-ujj784.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=670&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Belfast town hall: the degree to which local government is empowered to make decisions for its city impacts its productivity.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/V7MzSinlW1I">K. Mitch Hodge | Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Devolution matters</h2>
<p>For British cities to be more competitive, the OECD argued that they need greater investment to upskill their workforce and get more people into work. They need to invest in public transport, housing supply and local quality of life. They also need greater financial independence and better governance. The 2022 white paper does promise modest governance reforms but is virtually silent on the crucial issue of greater financial independence. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/journals/article/20737/">According to my research</a> our cities underperform, in part, due to a national decision-making system that has only partially been devolved. In Europe, there is variation to be sure, but the general trend is to place powers at the lowest government levels. </p>
<p>European cities have more responsibility than their UK counterparts for a wider range of functions which affect their economic competitiveness. They typically have more diverse forms of local revenue and more buoyant tax bases. This makes them less fiscally dependent upon the national state. And their combination of powers and resources arguably makes them more proactive, more entrepreneurial and more competitive. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A city skyline under a pale blue sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452174/original/file-20220315-21-18pa21t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/452174/original/file-20220315-21-18pa21t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452174/original/file-20220315-21-18pa21t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452174/original/file-20220315-21-18pa21t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452174/original/file-20220315-21-18pa21t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452174/original/file-20220315-21-18pa21t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/452174/original/file-20220315-21-18pa21t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frankfurt am Main is illustrative of the success of Germany’s second-tier cities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/germany-office?orientation=landscape">Dimitry Anikin | Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en">FAL</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most successful cities in Europe are German which, because of the system created by the Allies after the second world war, have substantial powers and resources. They operate in <a href="https://theconversation.com/other-countries-have-made-progress-in-levelling-up-heres-how-the-uks-plan-compares-176405">the most decentralised national system</a> on the continent and have sophisticated, cooperative and productive relationships between its three levels of government – federal, state and local.</p>
<p>It is no accident that the German economy is the most successful in Europe. It is clear too that UK cities – and the economy at large – underperform in large part due to the more centralised governmental, institutional and financial systems in place. Letting go would make us more competitive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177382/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Parkinson receives funding from ESRC </span></em></p>If the UK government is serious about levelling up the country, granting its second-tier cities more political and financial independence would be a good place to start.Michael Parkinson, Professor and Ambassador for the Heseltine Institute for Public Policy, Practice and Place, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1721912021-12-16T12:06:54Z2021-12-16T12:06:54ZHere’s why we need climate protests: even if some think they’re annoying<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436949/original/file-20211210-188518-70utf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C3489%2C2326&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protestors march in Glasgow during the UN climate conference COP26.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/theleft_eu/51658441637">TheLeft_EU/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The last few years have seen a surge in climate protests. From <a href="https://carnegieeurope.eu/2019/10/24/legacy-of-gezi-protests-in-turkey-pub-80142">Turkey</a> and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2019/10/20/737787659/activists-occupy-an-ancient-forest-in-germany-to-save-it">Germany</a> to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/03/north-dakota-access-oil-pipeline-protests-explainer">US</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/29/world/australia/surfers-drilling-bight.html">Australia</a> and <a href="https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/542052316/hundreds-protest-against-total-across-africa">countries across Africa</a>, local activists have fought corporate actions that threaten to destroy precious green space and accelerate global warming. </p>
<p>Consider the <a href="https://www.glasgowworld.com/news/people/cop26-global-day-of-action-protest-march-in-pictures-3447961">protest march</a> that took place in Glasgow on 6 November 2021, during the UN climate conference COP26. As a huge range of different groups marched together to demand action on global warming, they waved banners drawing attention to issues such as greenwashing, housing crises and trade unions.</p>
<p>Through taking part in this march, <a href="https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/5125">protesters</a> may have begun to see themselves as belonging to a wider, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1368430220936759#">shared identity</a> – one that specifically stood in opposition to climate destruction. This identity was reinforced by songs and chants, such as the words “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYS9sNlj1bQ&ab_channel=clarissal">power to the people</a> because the people have the power”, that rippled out across groups along the march route.</p>
<p>This inclusive identity, based on fighting inequality, could also be seen in the solidarity between climate protesters at COP26 and <a href="https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/19690670.extinction-rebellion-stand-glasgow-binmen-third-day-cop26-strikes/">binmen</a> striking for better pay.</p>
<h2>Long-term benefits</h2>
<p>People who reduce their plastic use, use low-carbon transport like bicycles and eat a plant-based diet are often called “environmentalists” as a result of their behaviour. Interestingly, this relationship could also run in reverse.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People at a climate protest" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437262/original/file-20211213-27-1netj3z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437262/original/file-20211213-27-1netj3z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437262/original/file-20211213-27-1netj3z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437262/original/file-20211213-27-1netj3z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437262/original/file-20211213-27-1netj3z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437262/original/file-20211213-27-1netj3z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437262/original/file-20211213-27-1netj3z.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protests can help people develop valuable social skills.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TAG_Climate_Protest_Future.jpg">Thomas Good/Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perceiving yourself as part of the “environmentalist” <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1987-98657-000">social category</a> – by identifying the environmentally friendly beliefs you share with that group – could help drive sustainable behaviour, crucial in the face of climate change. </p>
<p>However, for these behaviours to really have any influence, our research suggests they need to <a href="https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjso.12270">endure over time</a>. For that to happen, it’s important to have the opportunity to express your new shared identity in different social contexts. </p>
<p>This can be achieved by forming relationships with others who consider themselves part of an environmental community, increasing the prominence of environmental issues in your life and therefore the chance that your sustainable behaviour will continue behind closed doors.</p>
<p>Based on ours and others’ research on psychological change and collective action, it seems that what benefits protesters also benefits society. When protesters encourage reducing consumption and becoming more climate-conscious, we all – along with the environment – <a href="https://jspp.psychopen.eu/index.php/jspp/article/view/5125">profit</a> from it.</p>
<h2>Taking action</h2>
<p>Some have suggested that protests can <a href="https://www.independent.ie/news/environment/greta-made-me-cry-but-climate-change-protests-risk-alienating-public-mary-robinson-38618785.html">alienate people</a> through, for example, actions which disrupt daily life (creating traffic jams receives particular criticism). And politicians have called protests <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ed-miliband-blasts-counterproductive-insulate-25207626">counterproductive</a>, while emphasising that “real work” on climate happens within conferences and boardrooms. </p>
<p>But we’d argue that protests are an <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2378023120925949">effective tool</a>, even when they’re disruptive. Seeing others take action increases our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016328716301422?via%3Dihub">hope for the future</a> as well as offering an opportunity for <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pops.12786">vicarious empowerment</a> – motivating people in other places to take similar action, even when they haven’t physically participated in the original protests.</p>
<p>By seeing protests, directly or through media, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2019.00004/full">bystanders</a> can come to identify with protesters, possibly increasing their <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494421001006?via%3Dihub">belief</a> in their own power to cause social change. </p>
<p>This can create a positive feedback loop. Researchers have found that <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/socf.12422">emissions decrease</a> in US states with large numbers of environmental protests. Polling from <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2021/11/09/concern-environment-reaches-record-high-yougov-top">YouGov</a> also reported a significant rise in the number of British people concerned about climate following Extinction Rebellion’s early 2019 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/oct/07/extinction-rebellion-protesters-block-road-outside-downing-street">protests</a> in London.</p>
<p>Protests can also help achieve <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/128/4/1633/1849540">policy change</a> if the policy being protested is already under public discussion – and if protesters have <a href="https://meridian.allenpress.com/mobilization/article-abstract/12/1/53/82105/Useless-Protest-A-Time-Series-Analysis-of-the?redirectedFrom=fulltext">support from politicians</a>. And in countries where politicians are elected based on public opinion, protests that increase environmental awareness can <a href="https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/wcc.683">encourage change</a> through altering people’s voting habits. </p>
<p>For example, it’s likely that climate <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58681515">protests</a> across Germany helped in part to double the number of <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/germany-global-warming-changing-just-climate-s-changing-politics-rcna3571">voters</a> for the climate-conscious <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/focus/20210922-from-radical-to-mainstream-a-closer-look-at-germany-s-greens">Green Party</a> from 2017 to 2021. </p>
<p>Protests have even managed to change court decisions. Forest occupations in <a href="https://svenskbotanik.se/hur-ojnareskogen-raddades-och-bastetrask-blir-nationalpark/">Sweden</a> and <a href="https://energytransition.org/2018/10/in-a-win-for-the-environment-hambach-forest-stands-for-now/">Germany</a> resulted in courts saving the forests from destruction (for now). The value of protests should not be disregarded: they could have a larger effect than events behind closed doors.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172191/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Finnerty is affiliated with Extinction Rebellion - XR Scientists. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sara Vestergren and Yasemin Gülsüm Acar do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Joining a protest doesn’t just help attract others to supporting important causes - it comes with personal and psychological benefits too.Sara Vestergren, Lecturer in Psychology, Keele UniversitySamuel Finnerty, PhD Student in Social Psychology, Lancaster UniversityYasemin Gülsüm Acar, Lecturer in Psychology, University of DundeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1713092021-11-19T01:53:44Z2021-11-19T01:53:44ZThe ocean is essential to tackling climate change. So why has it been neglected in global climate talks?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432509/original/file-20211117-21-1d1d6n7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C0%2C4897%2C3294&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Silas Baisch/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Climate change is commonly discussed as though it’s a uniquely atmospheric phenomena. But the crisis is deeply entwined with the ocean, and this has largely been neglected in international climate talks. </p>
<p>The latest international climate negotiations made some progress by, for the first time, <a href="https://www.becausetheocean.org/the-ocean-anchored-in-glasgow-climate-pact/">anchoring oceans</a> permanently into the multilateral climate change regime. But the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/conferences/glasgow-climate-change-conference-october-november-2021/outcomes-of-the-glasgow-climate-change-conference">Glasgow Climate Pact</a> is still leagues from where it needs to be to adequately reflect the importance of oceans to our climate system.</p>
<p>Most countries have targets for land-based emissions – but there are no such targets for oceans. Yet the ocean plays a vital role in helping balance the conditions humans and most other species need to survive, while also offering a substantial part of the solution to stop the planet warming over the crucial limit of 1.5°C this century.</p>
<p>So how can oceans help us tackle the climate crisis? And what progress has been made in international negotiations? </p>
<h2>The ocean’s incredible potential</h2>
<p>Since industrialisation, the ocean has absorbed <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar5/">93% of human-generated heat</a> and <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aau5153">one-third of anthropogenic carbon dioxide</a> (CO₂). The consequences of this are profound, including the thermal expansion of water (the key cause of sea level rise), ocean acidification, <a href="https://www.iucn.org/theme/marine-and-polar/our-work/climate-change-and-oceans/ocean-deoxygenation">deoxygenation</a> (oxygen loss), and forcing marine life to redistribute to other places. </p>
<p>Alarmingly, this may one day lead the ocean to reverse its role as a carbon sink and release CO₂ <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000376708">back into the atmosphere</a>, as its absorption ability declines.</p>
<p>Equally important is ocean-based climate mitigation, which could provide <a href="https://www.wri.org/insights/turning-tide-ocean-based-solutions-could-close-emission-gap-21">more than 20% of the emissions reductions</a> needed for the 1.5°C goal. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432511/original/file-20211117-25-34h4c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Cargo ships" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432511/original/file-20211117-25-34h4c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432511/original/file-20211117-25-34h4c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432511/original/file-20211117-25-34h4c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432511/original/file-20211117-25-34h4c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432511/original/file-20211117-25-34h4c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432511/original/file-20211117-25-34h4c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432511/original/file-20211117-25-34h4c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The shipping industry is responsible for about 3% of global emissions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andy Li/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Crucially, we must see changes to maritime industries. The shipping industry alone has a similar carbon footprint to Germany – if shipping were a country it would be the world’s sixth-largest emitter. Although high on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-shipping-sector-is-finally-on-board-in-the-fight-against-climate-change-95212">International Maritime Organisation’s agenda</a>, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reach-net-zero-we-must-decarbonise-shipping-but-two-big-problems-are-getting-in-the-way-170464">decarbonisation of shipping</a> still lacks <a href="https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/let-s-be-honest-un-secretary-general-slams-imo-s-progress-on-co2">adequate targets or processes</a>.</p>
<p>Oceans can also provide climate-safe, sustainable food choices. Current food systems, such as emissions-intensive agriculture, fishing, and processed foods are responsible for <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00225-9">one-third of global emissions</a>. Considerable environmental (and health) benefits can be gained by shifting our diets to sustainable “<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-fish-can-still-be-part-of-a-more-sustainable-food-future-167944">blue foods</a>”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-reach-net-zero-we-must-decarbonise-shipping-but-two-big-problems-are-getting-in-the-way-170464">To reach net zero, we must decarbonise shipping. But two big problems are getting in the way</a>
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<p>These include seafoods sourced from fisheries with sustainable management practices, such as avoiding overfishing and reducing carbon emissions. Markets and technologies should also be geared towards the large-scale production and consumption of aquatic plants such as seagrasses.</p>
<p>There’s also a wealth of opportunity in “blue carbon” – capturing CO₂ in the atmosphere by conserving and restoring marine ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrasses and salt marshes. However, the success of nature-based solutions depends on a healthy ocean ecosystem. For example, there are emerging concerns around the impact of <a href="https://theconversation.com/oil-companies-are-ploughing-money-into-fossil-fuelled-plastics-production-at-a-record-rate-new-research-169690">plastic pollution</a> on plankton’s ability to absorb CO₂.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432512/original/file-20211117-21-1lqaa5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432512/original/file-20211117-21-1lqaa5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432512/original/file-20211117-21-1lqaa5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432512/original/file-20211117-21-1lqaa5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432512/original/file-20211117-21-1lqaa5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432512/original/file-20211117-21-1lqaa5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432512/original/file-20211117-21-1lqaa5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432512/original/file-20211117-21-1lqaa5q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Conserving mangroves is an important way to sequester carbon from the atmosphere.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But perhaps the greatest impact would come from adopting offshore renewable energy. This has the potential to offer <a href="https://www.oceanpanel.org/climate">one-tenth of the emissions reductions we need to reach the 1.5°C goal</a>. The International Energy Agency has estimated offshore wind could <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/offshore-wind-outlook-2019">power the world 18 times over its current consumption rate</a>.</p>
<h2>Climate talks are making slow progress</h2>
<p>For more than a decade, the inclusion of oceans in climate talks has been piecemeal and inconsistent. Where they have been part of negotiations, including at COP26, talk has focused on the potential for coastal areas to adapt to climate change impacts such as sea-level rise, as first raised in international fora <a href="http://www.islandvulnerability.org/slr1989/declaration.pdf">in 1989</a> by small island states. </p>
<p>The final COP26 agreement, known as the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/conferences/glasgow-climate-change-conference-october-november-2021/outcomes-of-the-glasgow-climate-change-conference">Glasgow Climate Pact</a>, made slight progress. </p>
<p>The pact recognised the importance of ensuring the <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cma3_auv_2_cover%20decision.pdf">ocean ecosystem’s integrity</a>. It established the “the Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue” as an annual process to strengthen ocean-based action. And <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cop26_auv_2f_cover_decision.pdf">it invited</a> UNFCCC bodies to consider how to “integrate and strengthen ocean-based action into existing mandates and workplans” and report back. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1456997181982924803"}"></div></p>
<p>While these are positive measures, at this stage they don’t require action by parties. Therefore, they’re only a theoretical inclusion, not action-oriented. </p>
<p>We still lack national targets and clear, mandatory international requirements for countries to consider sinks, sources and activities beyond the shoreline in their climate planning and reporting. </p>
<p>Where COP26 did progress was its focus on whether ocean impacts and mitigation will finally be brought into the mainstream climate agenda. For the first time in five years, a new <a href="https://www.becausetheocean.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Final-Draft-BtO3_31_Oct_2021.pdf">“Because the Ocean” declaration</a> was released, which calls for the systematic inclusion of the oceans in the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement process. </p>
<h2>What do we do now?</h2>
<p>What’s now needed is a list of mandated requirements that ensure countries report on and take responsibility for climate impacts within their maritime territories.</p>
<p>But as COP26 president Alok Sharma said of the summit as a whole, it was a “fragile win”. We still lack any reference to consistency with existing mechanisms, such as the <a href="https://www.un.org/depts/los/index.htm">law of the sea convention</a> or how funding will be allocated specifically to oceans. </p>
<p>As such, the actual impact of COP26 on the inclusion of oceans in climate action remains uncertain. It will depend on how the UNFCCC bodies respond to these directives, and their success in extending obligations to state parties.</p>
<p>Responding to the climate crisis means we need to stop pretending the ocean and atmosphere are separate. We must start including ocean action as a routine part of climate action.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cop26-left-the-world-with-a-climate-to-do-list-here-are-5-things-to-watch-for-in-2022-172024">COP26 left the world with a climate to-do list: Here are 5 things to watch for in 2022</a>
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<img alt="COP26: the world's biggest climate talks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong>This story is part of The Conversation’s coverage on COP26, the Glasgow climate conference, by experts from around the world.</strong>
<br><em>Amid a rising tide of climate news and stories, The Conversation is here to clear the air and make sure you get information you can trust. <a href="https://page.theconversation.com/cop26-glasgow-2021-climate-change-summit/"><strong>More.</strong></a></em> </p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171309/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Sali Bache does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For over a decade, the inclusion of oceans in climate talks has been piecemeal and inconsistent. And yet, the ocean is critical to help balance the conditions we need to survive.Dr Sali Bache, Strategic Advisor in International Policy and Oceans , Climateworks CentreLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1712992021-11-14T19:12:30Z2021-11-14T19:12:30ZWhere to find courage and defiant hope when our fragile, dewdrop world seems beyond saving<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431610/original/file-20211112-27-1z1pkk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C5327%2C3530&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marc Pell/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COP26 climate conference in Glasgow is over. Despite some progress, deep <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-glasgow-climate-pact-171799">concerns remain</a> about the outcomes. The final pact at least mentions the importance of exiting coal and the door remains open to ratcheting up national targets in 2022. But we’re all still on a long, hard road through wild and unfamiliar landscapes scarred by fires, floods and storms. </p>
<p>Accelerating the transition to a just and resilient zero-carbon future remains humanity’s most urgent task. Scientific evidence about global warming trends already locked in is, however, crystal clear: humans and all other species are on a journey into an increasingly harsh climate future. </p>
<p>This realisation raises two tough questions, which led me to begin work on my new book, <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-70743-9">Hope and Courage in the Climate Crisis</a>: </p>
<p><em>- what sources of hope and wisdom can strengthen our capacity to take courageous and effective climate action?</em></p>
<p><em>- how do we live meaningful lives in a world of rapidly intensifying climate and ecological risks?</em></p>
<p>There are times when I imagine all the ideas and voices I have drawn on – scientists and activists, teachers and writers, poets and artists – gathered in respectful and intense debate. The conversations spark and crackle with fierce, urgent energy. </p>
<p>All agree the hope we need is <a href="https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789462987241/realistic-hope">realistic and defiant</a>. It is not wishful thinking, denial, <a href="https://alexsteffen.substack.com/p/predatory-delay">or delay</a> disguised as naïve optimism. </p>
<p>As my research has helped me understand, humans continue to draw on a rich diversity of ideas to sustain defiant and courageous hope in dark times.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-glasgow-climate-pact-171799">Five things you need to know about the Glasgow Climate Pact</a>
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<h2>Science-based emergency action</h2>
<p>I turn first to my colleagues from science and technology. Surely, they argue, our first priority remains speaking truth to power about the speed and scale of action needed to restore a safe climate?</p>
<p>Targets and agreements set at global conferences like COP26 are useful. But only if national and sub-national governments, cities and communities, unions and business all actually deliver on those targets and rapidly intensify their work to cut emissions, including a swift end to using coal, oil and gas.</p>
<p>OK, but how do we achieve the necessary political momentum? My climate activist friends seem less convinced by the promise of scientific evidence and reason.</p>
<p>The pandemic response has been a useful wake-up call about the possibilities as well as the limits of human ingenuity. But in the climate crisis, how do we deploy data and evidence at the speed required, while avoiding the delusional hubris that there are always technical solutions to every human problem?</p>
<p>Historical examples my activist colleagues turn to for inspiration are stories of solidarity and fellowship, where ethically informed collective action has achieved transformational change which once looked completely impossible. </p>
<p>These include the anti-slavery movement, the Suffragettes, the overthrow of Apartheid and the fall of the Berlin Wall. More recently we can look to examples like <a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/">Black Lives Matter</a>, <a href="https://350.org/">350.org</a>, <a href="https://world.350.org/pacificwarriors/">Pacific Climate Warriors</a>, <a href="https://bze.org.au/">Beyond Zero Emissions</a>, <a href="https://www.marketforces.org.au/">Market Forces</a> and <a href="https://www.schoolstrike4climate.com/">School Strike 4 Climate.</a></p>
<h2>Justice, care and beauty</h2>
<p>I turn next to my friends and colleagues from <a href="https://www.seedmob.org.au/">Indigenous</a> and <a href="https://www.indigenousclimateaction.com/">First Nation</a> communities, such as the <a href="https://www.seedmob.org.au/">Seed</a> Indigenous Youth Climate Network.</p>
<p>From them, we might learn to deepen our understanding of the histories of the lands on which we gather – and the legacies of colonialism, resistance and dispossession which have led us to these times of risk and crisis.</p>
<p><a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780198813248.001.0001/oso-9780198813248">Climate justice</a> – the principle that the burdens of climate change impacts and solutions should be shared fairly – is therefore one of the first propositions we should bring to the table.</p>
<p>In thinking about the concept of climate justice I also find it helpful to bear in mind the responses Indigenous school students gave, when <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/recovering-narrative-place-stories-climate-change-tony-birch/">Indigenous author and activist Tony Birch</a> asked them to define climate justice: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>if we fail to care for Country, it cannot care for us </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This response highlights the importance of remembering that the principle of climate justice should not be restricted to humans alone.</p>
<p>I am joined next by teachers and scholars from a wide array of <a href="https://www.arrcc.org.au/">spiritual and faith-based traditions</a>. They suggest the first key step in times of suffering and despair is thankfulness.</p>
<p>Buddhist poet and environmental activist Gary Snyder <a href="https://journals.theasa.net/images/contributor_uploads/PJASm_vol8_fiedorczuk_snyder.pdf/">makes this point</a> very well. He notes that while many severe climate impacts may already be locked in, every day he feels gratitude to this world that is. </p>
<p>Snyder quotes Kobayashi Issa, a poet who once wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>This dewdrop world</p>
<p>Is but a dewdrop world</p>
<p>And yet …</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431609/original/file-20211112-19-13ei5tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C68%2C6560%2C4842&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Earth" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431609/original/file-20211112-19-13ei5tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C68%2C6560%2C4842&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431609/original/file-20211112-19-13ei5tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431609/original/file-20211112-19-13ei5tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431609/original/file-20211112-19-13ei5tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431609/original/file-20211112-19-13ei5tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431609/original/file-20211112-19-13ei5tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431609/original/file-20211112-19-13ei5tu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Celebrating the beauty of life on Earth can be a source of strength.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NASA/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Our shared responsibility</h2>
<p>Remembering <a href="https://oneearthsangha.org/domains/wisdom/resources/">the fragile impermanence</a> of our dewdrop world is a constant reminder of our shared responsibility to defend the beauty of the world we’ve been given, and hand this gift on to all humans and other species who’ll come after us.</p>
<p>Honouring and celebrating the astonishing, complex beauty of life on Earth is also, as legendary nature writer <a href="https://earlybirdbooks.com/conservationist-rachel-carson-emphasizes-importance-of-sharing-nature-with-children">Rachael Carson reminds us</a>, an abiding source of strength and inspiration:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring.</p>
<p>There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I turn finally to the theorists and writers, farmers and engineers, poets and artists and film makers who can help us imagine and create the regenerative action we need to cross the wild landscapes of the long climate emergency.</p>
<p>Visionary, insightful writers like <a href="https://www.humansandnature.org/vandana-shiva/">Vandana Shiva</a>, <a href="https://www.jeremylent.com/">Jeremy Lent</a> and <a href="https://www.monbiot.com/2021/11/02/surface-tension/">George Monbiot</a> who can help us clearly see the patterns and textures of our interwoven world, and understand and confront the ignorance, violence and greed threatening to tear this delicate fabric apart.</p>
<p>Authors and activists such as <a href="http://rebeccasolnit.net/book/hope-in-the-dark-untold-histories-wild-possibilities/">Rebecca Solnit</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kimstanleyrobinson/">Kim Stanley Robinson</a>, and <a href="https://www.globaloptimism.com/the-future-we-choose/">Christiana Figueres</a>, who can assist us navigate dangerous and uncertain times, remembering that the world is always full of surprises and the future is never fully settled. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431613/original/file-20211112-23-k1o4ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431613/original/file-20211112-23-k1o4ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431613/original/file-20211112-23-k1o4ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431613/original/file-20211112-23-k1o4ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431613/original/file-20211112-23-k1o4ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431613/original/file-20211112-23-k1o4ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431613/original/file-20211112-23-k1o4ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431613/original/file-20211112-23-k1o4ie.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The hope we need is realistic and defiant, not wishful thinking and denial.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Samuel Ferrara/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>Sunlight on the water, wind in the trees</h2>
<p>So, where might we find sources of wisdom, hope and courage in this world of rapidly intensifying climate consequences?</p>
<p>Honesty with ourselves and others about the scale and consequences of the crisis we now face. Scientific rigour, evidence and ingenuity. Working together, shoulder to shoulder to ignite and accelerate emergency speed action. Justice and care, respect and reciprocity. Thankfulness, kindness and compassion. Beauty, creativity and imagination.</p>
<p>And also these abiding gifts: the laughter of children. The comfort of old friends. Sunlight on the water, the wind in the trees, the silence of mountains, the roar of the ocean.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cop26-experts-react-to-the-un-climate-summit-and-glasgow-pact-171753">COP26: experts react to the UN climate summit and Glasgow Pact</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171299/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Wiseman is a Senior Research Fellow with Melbourne Climate Futures and Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne; a Research Fellow with the Centre for Policy Development and a Board Member of The Next Economy.
He is the author of 'Hope and Courage in the Climate Crisis', Palgrave Macmillan, 2021</span></em></p>The hope we need is realistic – not wishful thinking, denial or delay disguised as naïve optimism.John Wiseman, Professorial Fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1717232021-11-14T13:03:36Z2021-11-14T13:03:36ZThe ultimate guide to why the COP26 summit ended in failure and disappointment (despite a few bright spots)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431848/original/file-20211114-19-l7oc3o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C17%2C5982%2C3970&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After two hard-fought weeks of negotiations, the Glasgow climate change summit is, at last, over. All 197 participating countries adopted the so-called Glasgow Climate Pact, despite an 11th hour intervention by India in which the final agreement was watered down from “phasing out” coal to “phasing down”. </p>
<p>In an emotional final speech, COP26 president Alok Sharma apologised for this last-minute change. His apology goes to the heart of the goals of COP26 in Glasgow: the hope it would deliver outcomes matching the urgent “code red” action needed to achieve the Paris Agreement target.</p>
<p>At the summit’s outset, UN Secretary-General António Guterres <a href="https://unfccc.int/news/un-secretary-general-cop26-must-keep-15-degrees-celsius-goal-alive">urged countries</a> to “keep the goal of 1.5°C alive”, to accelerate the decarbonisation of the global economy, and to phase out coal. </p>
<p>So, was COP26 a failure? If we evaluate this using the summits original <a href="https://ukcop26.org/cop26-goals/">stated goals</a>, the answer is yes, it fell short. Two big ticket items weren’t realised: renewing targets for 2030 that align with limiting warming to 1.5°C, and an agreement on accelerating the phase-out of coal.
But among the failures, there were important decisions and notable bright spots. So let’s take a look at the summit’s defining issues. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1459643087718948870"}"></div></p>
<h2>Weak 2030 targets</h2>
<p>The goal of the Paris Agreement is to limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C this century, and to pursue efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C. Catastrophic impacts will be unleashed beyond this point, such as sea level rise and more intense and frequent natural disasters. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/publications/glasgows-2030-credibility-gap-net-zeros-lip-service-to-climate-action/">new projections</a> from Climate Action Tracker show even if all COP26 pledges are met, the planet is on track to warm by 2.1°C – or 2.4°C if only 2030 targets are met. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cop26-experts-react-to-the-un-climate-summit-and-glasgow-pact-171753">COP26: experts react to the UN climate summit and Glasgow Pact</a>
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<p>Despite the Australian government’s recent climate <a href="https://www.minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/taylor/media-releases/australia-welcomes-positive-outcomes-cop26">announcements</a>, this nation’s 2030 target <a href="https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/NDCStaging/Pages/All.aspx.">remains the same</a> as in 2015. If all countries <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/australia/targets/">adopted such</a> meagre near-term targets, global temperature rise would be on track for up to 3°C. </p>
<p>Technically, the 1.5°C limit is still within reach because, under the Glasgow pact, countries are asked to update their 2030 targets in a year’s time. However, as Sharma said, “the pulse of 1.5 is weak”. </p>
<p>And as Australia’s experience shows, domestic politics rather than international pressure is often the force driving climate policy. So there are no guarantees Australia or other nations will deliver greater ambition in 2022. </p>
<h2>Phase down, not out</h2>
<p>India’s intervention to change the final wording to “phase down” coal rather than “phase out” dampens the urgency to shift away from coal.</p>
<p>India is the world’s <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/the-carbon-brief-profile-india">third-largest</a> emitter of greenhouse gases, after China and the United States. The country relies heavily on coal, and coal-powered generation is expected to <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/coal-2019">grow by 4.6%</a> each year to 2024. India was the most prominent objector to the “phase out” wording, but also had support from China.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cop26-leaves-too-many-loopholes-for-the-fossil-fuel-industry-here-are-5-of-them-171398">COP26 leaves too many loopholes for the fossil fuel industry. Here are 5 of them</a>
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<p>And US climate envoy <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/12/climate/john-kerry-fossil-fuel-subsidies.html">John Kerry</a> argued that carbon capture and storage technology could be developed further, to trap emissions at the source and store them underground. </p>
<p>Carbon capture and storage is a controversial proposition for climate action. It is not proven at scale, and <a href="https://bv.fapesp.br/en/publicacao/157440/an-assessment-of-ccs-costs-barriers-and-potential/">we don’t yet know</a> if captured emissions stored underground will eventually return to the atmosphere. And around the world, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-01175-7">relatively few</a> large-scale underground storage locations exist. </p>
<p>And it’s hard to see this expensive technology ever being cost-competitive with <a href="https://blog.csiro.au/2020-gencost">cheap</a> renewable energy.</p>
<p>In a crucial outcome, COP26 also finalised rules for global carbon trading, known as Article 6 under the Paris Agreement. However under the rules, the fossil fuel industry <a href="https://theconversation.com/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-glasgow-climate-pact-171799">will be allowed to</a> “offset” its carbon emissions and carry on polluting. Combined with the “phasing down” change, this will see fossil fuel emissions continue.</p>
<h2>It wasn’t all bad</h2>
<p>Despite the shortcomings, COP26 led to a number of important positive outcomes. </p>
<p>The world has taken an unambiguous turn away from fossil fuel as a source of energy. And the 1.5°C global warming target has taken centre stage, with the recognition that reaching this target will require rapid, deep and sustained emissions reductions of <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cma3_auv_2_cover%20decision.pdf">45% by 2030</a>, relative to 2010 levels.</p>
<p>What’s more, the pact emphasises the importance to mitigation of nature and ecosystems, including protecting forests and biodiversity. This comes on top of a side deal struck by Australia and 123 other countries promising to end deforestation by 2030.</p>
<p>The pact also urges countries to fully deliver on an outstanding promise to deliver US$100 billion per year for five years to developing countries vulnerable to climate damage. It also <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cma2021_L16_adv.pdf">emphasises</a> the importance <a href="https://unfccc.int/enhanced-transparency-framework#eq-9">of transparency</a> in implementing the pledges. </p>
<p>Nations are also invited to revisit and strengthen the 2030 targets as necessary to align with the Paris Agreement temperature goal by the end of 2022. In support of this, it was <a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cma3_auv_2_cover%20decision.pdf">agreed</a> to hold a high-level ministerial roundtable meeting each year focused on raising ambition out to 2030.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/12/us-china-cop26-climate-carbon-superpower">US and China climate agreement</a> is also cause for cautious optimism.</p>
<p>Despite the world not being on track for the 1.5°C goal, momentum is headed in the right direction. And the mere fact that a reduction in coal use was directly addressed in the final text signals change may be possible. But whether it comes in the small window we have left to stop catastrophic climate change remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171723/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brendan Mackey has previously received research grants from the Federal government, stage governments and charitable trusts that have focussed on problems related to climate change, forests, mitigation and ecosystem services including biodiversity conservation. He is a coordinating lead author in IPCC 6th Assessment Report Working Group II, and he is a voluntary board member of the Great Eastern Ranges Initiative Inc, and a member of the Queensland Government's Native Timber Advisory Panel.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Hales does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From weak 2030 targets to controversial rules around carbon trading, let’s take a look at the summit’s defining issues.Robert Hales, Director Centre for Sustainable Enterprise, Griffith UniversityBrendan Mackey, Director of the Griffith Climate Change Response Program, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1713982021-11-12T00:03:50Z2021-11-12T00:03:50ZCOP26 leaves too many loopholes for the fossil fuel industry. Here are 5 of them<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431466/original/file-20211111-6892-y8p0oo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C5289%2C3499&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the Glasgow climate summit to be judged a success, a key outcome had to be that parties agree the majority of the world’s fossil fuel reserves need to be left in the ground. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03821-8">recent research</a> suggests, 89% of coal and 59% of gas reserves need to stay in the ground if there’s to be even a 50% chance of global temperature rise staying under the crucial limit of 1.5°C this century. </p>
<p>The summit, COP26, has not lived up to that ambition because there are too many loopholes for the fossil fuel industry to exploit.</p>
<p>Some promising proposals have been put forward, including the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-refusal-to-sign-a-global-methane-pledge-exposes-flaws-in-the-term-net-zero-170944">pledge to cut methane</a> emissions, some increased emissions reductions targets at the national level, limits <a href="https://theconversation.com/cop26-global-deforestation-deal-will-fail-if-countries-like-australia-dont-lift-their-game-on-land-clearing-171108">to deforestation</a>, and ending some overseas funding of fossil fuels. Yesterday, 13 countries launched <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2297225-cop26-new-alliance-commits-to-ending-oil-and-gas-extraction/">a new alliance</a> to end gas and oil production within their borders, led by Denmark and Costa Rica. </p>
<p>But most proposals suffer either from a lack of ambition or a lack of participation from key countries. </p>
<p>Take the pledge to cut methane emissions. Some of the biggest methane emitters such as Russia, China and Australia failed to sign up. Similarly, the plan to phase out coal allows some signatories such as <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-04/small-print-gives-indonesia-a-way-out-in-cop-coal-pledge">Indonesia</a> to keep building coal-fired power plants.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-refusal-to-sign-a-global-methane-pledge-exposes-flaws-in-the-term-net-zero-170944">Australia's refusal to sign a global methane pledge exposes flaws in the term 'net-zero'</a>
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<p>What these proposals and, indeed, the whole COP process, suffer from is an inability to address the fact that if we’re to avoid the worst of climate change, we simply can’t keep extracting fossil fuels. </p>
<p>While national governments and their negotiators remain willing to listen to the interests of fossil fuel lobbyists, the COP process will continue to be riddled with loopholes that will derail the achievement of real targets. Five big loopholes come to mind. </p>
<h2>1. Subsidies and finance</h2>
<p>Much has been made of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), a global coalition of financial institutions which aims to accelerate the decarbonisation of the economy. </p>
<p>But many of its efforts will be undermined while governments continue to subsidise the fossil fuel industry. With fossil fuel subsidies globally running at US$11 million (A$15 million) <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/06/fossil-fuel-industry-subsidies-of-11m-dollars-a-minute-imf-finds">every minute</a>, GFANZ is insufficient to halt emissions because subsidising the cost of production and sale of fossil fuels continues to make the industry feasible. </p>
<p>Moreover GFANZ is voluntary, when we need commitments to be binding. It also includes banks who have recently provided <a href="https://www.ran.org/the-understory/the-net-zero-banking-alliances-40-billion-exxon-problem/">US$575 billion</a> (A$787 billion) in fossil fuel finance to some of the world’s biggest polluters.</p>
<p>Governments should not wait for future COPs to address this issue. Countries such as Australia should immediately start reining in the subsidies that make the industry profitable and should not entertain new subsidies, such as the National Party’s proposal in Australia for a coal rail line to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-13/barnaby-joyce-says-coal-will-be-sent-from-toowoomba-to-gladstone/100537238">Gladstone</a>. </p>
<h2>2. New production</h2>
<p>Despite the overwhelming evidence that most of the world’s fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground, governments are still approving new projects. The UK government has 40 fossil fuel projects in the pipeline despite being host of <a href="https://www.euronews.com/green/2021/10/28/the-uk-has-40-new-fossil-fuel-projects-in-the-pipeline-what-does-this-mean-for-cop26-credi">COP26</a>. </p>
<p>Australia, too, continues to approve new gas and coal developments. The NSW government has approved eight new projects since <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-29/nsw-coal-mine-approvals-could-undo-emissions-work-analysis-finds/100331114">2018</a>, despite the state’s target of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-29/nsw-new-carbon-emissions-reduction-target-for-2030/100498444">50% emissions reduction</a> by 2030.</p>
<p>Until future climate negotiations put a ban on new fossil fuel projects and agree to a clear and rapid phase out of current production levels, the fossil fuel industry will continue to thrive. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431469/original/file-20211111-13-1rxlcg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431469/original/file-20211111-13-1rxlcg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431469/original/file-20211111-13-1rxlcg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431469/original/file-20211111-13-1rxlcg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431469/original/file-20211111-13-1rxlcg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431469/original/file-20211111-13-1rxlcg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431469/original/file-20211111-13-1rxlcg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431469/original/file-20211111-13-1rxlcg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Governments worldwide are still approving new fossil fuel projects.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>3. Business as usual</h2>
<p>A further loophole for the fossil fuel industry is how it’s being allowed to continue its huge levels of production because it has committed (in some cases) to making its operations greener. </p>
<p>Measures such as carbon capture and storage and offsetting have been touted by some governments as solutions to bringing the industry’s emissions down. But these <a href="https://theconversation.com/big-business-greenwash-or-a-climate-saviour-carbon-offsets-raise-tricky-moral-questions-171295">are not real solutions</a> if they simply allow fossil fuel production and use to continue at dangerous levels. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/big-business-greenwash-or-a-climate-saviour-carbon-offsets-raise-tricky-moral-questions-171295">Big-business greenwash or a climate saviour? Carbon offsets raise tricky moral questions</a>
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<p>While offsetting will have to <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-cant-stabilise-the-climate-without-carbon-offsets-so-how-do-we-make-them-work-169355">play a role</a> in reducing emissions in some hard-to-abate sectors such as aviation and agriculture, it is not a substitute for genuine cuts to fossil fuel use and misleadingly gives the impression fossil fuel companies are <a href="https://www.clientearth.org/latest/latest-updates/news/revealed-9-examples-of-fossil-fuel-company-greenwashing/">going green</a>.</p>
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<h2>4. Influence</h2>
<p>These loopholes that allow fossil fuel production are, of course, no accident. The largest group of representatives at COP26 were from the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59199484">fossil fuel industry</a>. </p>
<p>One of the striking and disturbing characteristics of government approaches to climate change is the impact of fossil fuel companies on <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/report/whos-in-the-room/">decision making</a>. It’s hard to think of other issues (smoking, peace negotiations) where we tolerate this kind of influence.</p>
<p>The industry’s influence on successive Australian governments has been well documented, with over <a href="https://publicintegrity.org.au/political-donations-and-the-resources-sectors-influence/">A$136.8 million</a> in donations recorded between 1999 and 2019.</p>
<p>Having a display by gas company Santos (<a href="https://www.marketforces.org.au/politicaldonations2020/">a major donor to Australian political parties</a>) at Australia’s COP26 pavilion rightly provoked ridicule. </p>
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<h2>5. Decoupling production</h2>
<p>The failure to address these loopholes will mean the production of fossil fuels in countries like Australia will continue for much longer than it should. </p>
<p>The fact there are still willing buyers for fossil fuel assets such as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/bhp-sell-stake-metallurgical-coal-jv-stanmore-up-135-bln-2021-11-07/">BHP’s Queensland coal mines</a> indicates investors are anticipating years of profits (<a href="https://theconversation.com/bhp-is-selling-its-dirty-oil-and-gas-assets-but-hold-the-applause-166333">and few climate liabilities</a>) from fossil fuels, despite the measures proposed at COP26. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bhp-is-selling-its-dirty-oil-and-gas-assets-but-hold-the-applause-166333">BHP is selling its dirty oil and gas assets, but hold the applause</a>
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<p>One of the most glaring failures of COP26 is the failure to connect emission cuts with production cuts. Nowhere is this more apparent than in countries <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/norway/">such as Norway</a> which have impressive domestic reduction targets (55% by 2030) yet continue to champion <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58896850">fossil fuel production</a> through oil and gas exploration. </p>
<p>A key to progress at future COPs and domestically is ending the false idea one can make progress on climate by cutting domestic emissions while simultaneously supporting fossil fuel production. If countries such as Australia and Norway can’t come together to agree on cutting support for production, then we will continue to see loopholes that allow the industry to flourish. </p>
<p>Some countries are taking positive steps. The <a href="http://www.beyondoilandgasalliance.com/">Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance</a> that aims to phase out production is key to cutting supply of fossil fuels. </p>
<p>Multilateral action such as this, whether as part of COP or outside it – and, crucially, the pressure from below that causes it – must be a focus if we’re to avoid climate change.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/try-harder-try-harder-today-cop26-negotiators-will-fight-to-save-life-on-earth-the-next-decade-will-reveal-if-they-succeeded-171661">'Try harder. Try harder': Today, COP26 negotiators will fight to save life on Earth. The next decade will reveal if they succeeded</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171398/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremy Moss receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Some promising proposals have been put forward, but most suffer either from a lack of ambition or a lack of participation from key countries.Jeremy Moss, Professor of Political Philosophy, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1705362021-10-26T12:19:19Z2021-10-26T12:19:19Z4 key issues to watch with climate negotiations underway at COP26 in Glasgow<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/429945/original/file-20211103-27-okmhgs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C42%2C7117%2C4705&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. President Joe Biden arrives at a COP26 session in Glasgow, Scotland.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ClimateCOP26SummitBiden/1e5a0730e8f34c9eabdc806a7089628f/photo">Erin Schaff/The New York Times via AP, Poo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Glasgow sits proudly on the banks of the river Clyde, once the heart of Scotland’s industrial glory and now a launchpad for its green energy transition. It’s a fitting host for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-cop26-heres-how-global-climate-negotiations-work-and-whats-expected-from-the-glasgow-summit-169434">United Nations’ climate conference, COP26</a>, where world leaders are discussing how their countries will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change.</p>
<p><a href="https://fletcher.tufts.edu/people/rachel-kyte">I’ve been involved in climate negotiations</a> for several years as a former senior U.N. official and am in Glasgow for the two-week conference that started Oct. 31, 2021. With heads of state heading home after two days of high-level speeches and announcements, negotiations are underway. Here’s what to watch for. </p>
<h2>Ambition</h2>
<p>At the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement">Paris climate conference</a> in 2015, countries agreed to work to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), aiming for 1.5 C (2.7 F). If COP21 in Paris was the agreement on a destination, COP26 is the review of itineraries and course adjustments.</p>
<p>The bad news is that countries aren’t on track. They were required this year to submit new action plans – known as national determined contributions, or <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/nationally-determined-contributions-ndcs/nationally-determined-contributions-ndcs">NDCs</a>. The U.N.’s latest tally of all the revised plans submitted in advance of the Glasgow summit puts the world on <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2021">a trajectory to warm 2.7 C</a> (4.86 F), well into dangerous levels of climate change, by the end of this century. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428545/original/file-20211026-15-1foevew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing emissions trajectories" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428545/original/file-20211026-15-1foevew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/428545/original/file-20211026-15-1foevew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428545/original/file-20211026-15-1foevew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428545/original/file-20211026-15-1foevew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428545/original/file-20211026-15-1foevew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428545/original/file-20211026-15-1foevew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/428545/original/file-20211026-15-1foevew.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The U.N. Environment Programme’s Emissions Gap Report, released Oct. 26, 2021, shows the national pledges so far fall well short of the Paris Agreement goals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2021">UNEP</a></span>
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<p>All eyes are on the G-20, a group of leading world economies that together account for <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-23/g-20-ministers-stumble-over-coal-global-warming-targets">almost 80% of global emissions</a>. Their <a href="https://www.g20.org/rome-summit.html">annual summit</a> in Rome on Oct. 30-31, they stopped short of committing to reach net zero emissions by 2050.</p>
<p>Brazil, Mexico, Australia and Russia have filed plans that are not in line with the Paris Agreement. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a net zero target of 2070, but significantly committing to 50% energy from renewable sources by 2030. He asked for the international community to help finance that rapid increase and ticked the box on ambition.</p>
<p><a href="https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/ndcstaging/Pages/Party.aspx?party=CHN&prototype=1">China’s updated plan</a> changed little from what it announced a year ago. It currently involves cutting emissions 65% per unit of gross domestic product, a measure known as carbon intensity, by 2030 compared to 2005 levels; moving up the date when the country’s emissions growth will peak to “before 2030” from “around 2030”; and setting industrial production targets for other greenhouse gases, such as methane. That peaking date needs to be 2026 – no later.</p>
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<p>Meanwhile the world’s eyes are on the United States. Opposition from two Democratic senators, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-sen-joe-manchins-support-for-natural-gas-could-derail-bidens-us-climate-plan-168448">Joe Manchin</a> of West Virginia and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/oct/22/kyrsten-sinema-climate-advocates-exasperated-biden-bill">Kyrsten Sinema</a> of Arizona, forced the Biden administration to <a href="https://www.eenews.net/articles/biden-talks-up-climate-deal-with-manchin/">scrap a plan</a> that would have incentivized utilities to switch to cleaner power sources faster. <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-meet-americas-climate-goals-5-policies-for-bidens-next-climate-bill-170705">President Joe Biden’s Plan B, announced less than a week before the summit, may not be enough</a> to reach the United States’ 2030 emissions targets. </p>
<p>The U.S. has been a big impetus behind new announcements on <a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-announces-a-sweeping-methane-plan-heres-why-cutting-the-greenhouse-gas-is-crucial-for-protecting-climate-and-health-168220">curbing methane emissions 30% by 2030</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/11/01/more-than-100-world-leaders-pledge-halt-deforestation-by-2030/">ending deforestation by 2030</a>, but has a way to go in contributions on climate finance.</p>
<h2>Carbon markets</h2>
<p>One leftover task from the Paris conference is to set rules for <a href="https://www.hec.edu/en/knowledge/articles/are-carbon-markets-solution-against-climate-change">carbon markets</a>, particularly how countries can trade carbon credits with each other, or between a country and a private company. </p>
<p>Regulated carbon markets exist from the European Union to China, and voluntary markets are spurring both optimism and concern. Rules are needed to ensure that carbon markets actually drive down emissions and provide revenue for developing countries to protect their resources. Get it right and carbon markets can speed the transition to net zero. Done badly, <a href="https://www.cleanenergywire.org/news/carbon-offset-market-booms-despite-nagging-greenwash-concerns">greenwashing</a> will undermine confidence in pledges made by governments and companies alike. </p>
<p>Another task is determining how countries measure and report their emissions reductions and how transparent they are with one another. This too is fundamental to beating back greenwashing. </p>
<p>Also, expect to see pressure for countries to come back in a year or two with better plans for reducing emissions and reports of concrete progress.</p>
<h2>Climate finance</h2>
<p>Underpinning progress on all issues is the question of finance.</p>
<p>Developing countries need help to grow green and adapt to climate change, and they are frustrated that that help has been on a slow drip feed. In 2009 and again in 2015, wealthy countries <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/06/1094762">agreed to provide $100 billion a year</a> in climate finance for developing nations by 2020, but they <a href="https://www.oecd.org/newsroom/statement-from-oecd-secretary-general-mathias-cormann-on-climate-finance-in-2019.htm">haven’t reached that goal yet</a>. </p>
<p>Just ahead of the summit, the U.K. revealed a <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-cop26-presidency-publishes-climate-finance-delivery-plan-led-by-german-state-secretary-flasbarth-and-canadas-minister-wilkinson-ahead-of-cop26">climate finance plan</a>, brokered by Germany and Canada, that would establish a process for counting and agreeing on what counts in the $100 billion, but it will take until 2023 to reach that figure. </p>
<p>On the one hand it is progress, but it will feel begrudging to developing countries whose costs of adaptation now must be met as the global costs of climate impacts rise, including from heat waves, wildfires, floods and intensifying hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons. Just as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01762-w">with the global vaccine rollout</a>, the developing world may wonder whether they are being slow-walked into a new economic divergence, where the rich will get richer and the poor poorer.</p>
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<p>Beyond the costs of mitigation and adaptation is the question of <a href="https://unfccc.int/topics/adaptation-and-resilience/the-big-picture/introduction-to-loss-and-damage">loss and damage</a> – the innocuous term for the harm experienced by countries that did little to contribute to climate change in the past and the responsibility of countries that brought on the climate emergency with their historic emissions. These difficult negotiations will move closer to center stage as the losses increase. </p>
<p>Public climate finance provided by countries can also play another role <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/06/17/significant-potential-to-increase-impact-of-climate-finance-new-report-finds">through its potential to leverage</a> the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/going-big-and-fast-on-renewables-would-save-trillions-in-energy-costs/2021/09/23/03c9e7f0-1c5a-11ec-bea8-308ea134594f_story.html">trillions of dollars needed</a> to invest in transitions to clean energy and greener growth. Expect big pledges from private sources of finance – pension funds, insurance companies, banks and philanthropies – with their own net zero plans, including <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/22/which-banks-are-increasing-decreasing-fossil-fuel-financing-.html">ending finance</a> <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-17/maine-becomes-first-state-to-order-public-fossil-fuel-divestment?sref=Hjm5biAW">and investments</a> in fossil fuel projects, and financing critical efforts to speed progress.</p>
<h2>It’s raining pledges</h2>
<p>A cross section of the world will be in Glasgow for the conference, and they will be talking about pathways for reducing global carbon emissions to <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-companies-pledge-net-zero-emissions-to-fight-climate-change-but-what-does-that-really-mean-166547">net zero</a> and building greater resilience.</p>
<p>From <a href="https://www.greenbiz.com/article/zero-carbon-fuels-and-marine-shipping-both-will-and-way">emissions-free shipping</a> to <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-calculating-the-true-climate-impact-of-aviation-emissions">aviation</a>, from <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0351">ending public financing for coal</a> and <a href="https://ukcop26.org/statement-on-international-public-support-for-the-clean-energy-transition/">other fossil fuel projects</a> outside their borders to expanding the use of <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/31/fact-sheet-the-united-states-and-european-union-to-negotiate-worlds-first-carbon-based-sectoral-arrangement-on-steel-and-aluminum-trade/">green steel</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/bendable-concrete-and-other-co2-infused-cement-mixes-could-dramatically-cut-global-emissions-152544">cement</a>, from platforms to <a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-urges-countries-to-slash-methane-emissions-30-heres-why-its-crucial-for-protecting-climate-and-health-and-how-it-can-pay-for-itself-168220">reduce methane</a>, to <a href="https://www.unep.org/nature-based-solutions-climate">nature-based solutions</a>, the two-week conference and days leading up to it will see a steady stream of commitments and new groups of countries, nongovernmental organizations and businesses working together.</p>
<p>Keeping track and verifying achievements toward these pledges will be critical coming away from COP26. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres announced that he will convene experts to help ensure that net-zero pledges are real, and he warned of the dangers of greenwashing. Without that discipline, climate activist <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2TJMpiG5XQ">Greta Thunberg’s “blah blah blah” speech</a> thrown at delegates to a pre-COP meeting in Milan a few weeks ago will continue to echo around the world.</p>
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<img alt="COP26: the world’s biggest climate talks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong>This story is part of The Conversation’s coverage of COP26, the Glasgow climate conference, by experts from around the world.</strong>
<br><em>Amid a rising tide of climate news and stories, The Conversation is here to clear the air and make sure you get information you can trust. <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/cop26">Read more of our U.S.</a> and <a href="https://page.theconversation.com/cop26-glasgow-2021-climate-change-summit/">global coverage</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>This article was updated Nov. 3 with the new announcements on methane, deforestation and new plans from the U.S. and India.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170536/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Kyte does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The world isn’t on track to avoid dangerous climate change, and this year’s climate conference, COP26, is crucial, a former senior UN official writes.Rachel Kyte, Dean of the Fletcher School, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1695422021-10-24T19:02:52Z2021-10-24T19:02:52ZA successful COP26 is essential for Earth’s future. Here’s what needs to go right<p>A week from today, a crucial round of United Nations climate change negotiations will begin in Glasgow and the stakes could not be higher. By the end, we’ll know how far nations are willing to go to address humanity’s biggest challenge.</p>
<p>So is COP26 on track for success? There are reasons to be hopeful. </p>
<p>More than 100 countries, including China, the United States and United Kingdom, have already pledged to reach net-zero emissions. Globally, renewable energy is <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/05/11/995849954/renewable-energy-capacity-jumped-45-worldwide-in-2020-iea-sees-new-normal">booming</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/asias-energy-pivot-is-a-warning-to-australia-clinging-to-coal-is-bad-for-the-economy-169541">the tide is turning</a> against fossil fuels, and the <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/markets-moving-economic-costs-australias-climate-inaction/">economic costs</a> of not acting on climate change are becoming ever more obvious. </p>
<p>But if history has taught us anything, no country at the summit will agree to do more on climate change than it believes it can do at home. In other words, domestic politics is what drives international negotiations. </p>
<h2>What will happen in Glasgow?</h2>
<p>The first COP, or Conference of Parties, was held in Berlin in 1995. About a quarter of a century later, it will meet for the 26th time. </p>
<p>COP26 will determine the direction of key aspects of the fight against global warming. Chief <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-cop26-heres-how-global-climate-negotiations-work-and-whats-expected-from-the-glasgow-summit-169434">among them</a> is how well nations have implemented their commitments under the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2°C, and the extent to which they will increase that ambition. </p>
<p>Other issues on the agenda include climate finance to developing nations, adaptation to climate change and carbon trading rules.</p>
<p>Starting on October 31, hundreds of government delegates will attend for two weeks of complex and intense negotiations over the specific text of the agreement. </p>
<p>Typically, what delegates can’t sort out is left to political leaders, who negotiate the thorniest issues. Historically, final agreement occurs in the wee hours of the final session.</p>
<p>Outside the convention centre is the unofficial COP, which is more like a world climate expo. Thousands of representatives from business, civil society and elsewhere — from bankers and billionaires, to students and survivalists – gather for panel discussions, exhibitions and protests.</p>
<h2>Progress is slow</h2>
<p>Global climate talks involve people from all around the globe with different interests, preferences, and mandates (what negotiators sometimes call “red lines”). As you can imagine, progress can be slow. </p>
<p>Almost 200 nations are signed up to the Paris Agreement, and agreement is by consensus. That means just one country can hold up progress for hours or even days. </p>
<p>Cynics – more often than not, those wanting to <a href="https://theconversation.com/fossil-fuel-misinformation-may-sideline-one-of-the-most-important-climate-change-reports-ever-released-165887">delay climate action</a> – claim the whole process is nothing more than a talk shop. </p>
<p>It’s true, talk is slow. But it’s also much better than coercion, and without the negotiations countries would face much less pressure to act. It’s also true that over the last 25 years, these negotiations have redefined how the world thinks and acts on climate change. </p>
<p>After all, it was the COP in Paris that tasked the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to provide a <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/spm/">special report</a> on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Its findings reverberated around the world. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/new-un-report-outlines-urgent-transformational-change-needed-to-hold-global-warming-to-1-5-c-103237">It found</a> if we’re to limit warming to 1.5°C, we must reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 45% by 2030, reaching near-zero by around 2050.</p>
<p>But since the Paris Agreement was struck, global emissions have continued to rise, even with the impacts of COVID-19. COP26 is a major test of whether the world can turn this around and avert runaway global warming.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fossil-fuel-misinformation-may-sideline-one-of-the-most-important-climate-change-reports-ever-released-165887">Fossil fuel misinformation may sideline one of the most important climate change reports ever released</a>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427720/original/file-20211021-15-1xxiq11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427720/original/file-20211021-15-1xxiq11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427720/original/file-20211021-15-1xxiq11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427720/original/file-20211021-15-1xxiq11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427720/original/file-20211021-15-1xxiq11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427720/original/file-20211021-15-1xxiq11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427720/original/file-20211021-15-1xxiq11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427720/original/file-20211021-15-1xxiq11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">In 2019 and 2020, bushfires razed 24 million hectares of land in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>Will Glasgow deliver?</h2>
<p>For the Glasgow summit to be deemed a success, a few things need to go right. First of all, countries need to commit not simply to net-zero targets by 2050, but stronger targets for 2030. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06876-2">Without them</a>, there’s zero chance the world will hold the rise in global temperatures to 2°C.</p>
<p>Major emitters will also need to support developing countries with the finance and technologies to enable them to transition to clean energy and adapt to climate change impacts, including severe flooding and prolonged droughts. </p>
<p>Other issues, such as rules around international carbon markets, will also be on the agenda, but even the most robust carbon markets are <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/117/16/8664">unlikely</a> to deliver emissions cuts at the speed scientists warn is necessary to avert disaster.</p>
<p>There are signs of hope. The US has been, historically, the most important player in the international negotiations, and President Joe Biden has outlined <a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-says-the-us-will-rejoin-the-paris-climate-agreement-in-77-days-then-australia-will-really-feel-the-heat-149533">the most ambition climate plans</a> in the nation’s history ahead of the Glasgow summit.</p>
<p>The US, together with the UK, the European Union and a host of smaller countries, <a href="https://theconversation.com/glasgow-showdown-pacific-islands-demand-global-leaders-bring-action-not-excuses-to-un-summit-169649">including those in the Pacific</a>, comprise a strong and influential coalition of countries gunning to limit warming to 1.5°C.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-says-the-us-will-rejoin-the-paris-climate-agreement-in-77-days-then-australia-will-really-feel-the-heat-149533">Biden says the US will rejoin the Paris climate agreement in 77 days. Then Australia will really feel the heat</a>
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<p>So what stands in their way? Well, what countries are willing to commit to in Glasgow is not so much a function of what happens in Glasgow, but of <a href="https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/the-politics-of-climate-change-negotiations-9781783472109.html">domestic politics</a> in their capitals.</p>
<p>This is why Democrats in Washington are feverishly working to ensure <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/10/19/climate-reconciliation-biden-white-house/">Biden’s massive budget bill</a>, which includes measures such as a clean electricity program, makes its way through Congress. The bill is vital to the president’s commitment to halve emissions by 2030.</p>
<p>It’s also why astute observers have been fixated on well-known climate laggards heavily reliant on fossil fuels, such Brazil, Russia, and Australia, to see whether any domestic political developments might lead these nations to commit to more ambitious targets by 2030.</p>
<p>And it’s why lobbyists for industries that stand to lose from climate change – namely oil, gas and coal – know to kill off climate action in Glasgow, they need to kill off climate action at home.</p>
<p>International negotiations are often referred to as a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2706785">two-level game</a>. Changes at the domestic level can enable new and, hopefully, ambitious realignments at the international level. </p>
<p>Will these realignments occur? We don’t have long to find out, but at the domestic level in many nations, there has never been a worse time to advocate for fossil fuels – and this should give us all hope that action on climate change is more likely than ever. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/asias-energy-pivot-is-a-warning-to-australia-clinging-to-coal-is-bad-for-the-economy-169541">Asia's energy pivot is a warning to Australia: clinging to coal is bad for the economy</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christian Downie receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p>By the end of the summit, we’ll know how far nations are willing to go to address humanity’s biggest challenge. But while international politics matter, domestic politics are what counts.Christian Downie, Associate Professor, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1701982021-10-20T19:13:33Z2021-10-20T19:13:33ZAustralia is undermining the Paris Agreement, no matter what Morrison says – we need new laws to stop this<p>Prime Minister Scott Morrison is poised to take a 2050 net-zero emissions target to Glasgow. While this may seem like a milestone, Australia is still failing to abide by one of the core requirements of the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/paris-agreement">Paris Agreement</a>. </p>
<p>At Paris in 2015, Australia – like the rest of the world – signed up to toughening our emissions reduction targets every five years. We’ve now reached that point (factoring in a one-year COVID delay).</p>
<p>Yet Australia’s current 2030 targets remain no more ambitious than those we produced six years ago, and Morrison has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/18/no-change-to-australias-2030-emissions-reduction-target-as-scott-morrison-focuses-on-net-zero-deal">all but ruled out</a> increasing them ahead of the Glasgow summit. </p>
<p>This means Australia is undermining the international treaty central to combating climate change – and highlights yet again the need for Australia’s climate agreements to be written into domestic law. </p>
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<img alt="sunset and smoke stack" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427419/original/file-20211020-28-bpx377.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427419/original/file-20211020-28-bpx377.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427419/original/file-20211020-28-bpx377.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427419/original/file-20211020-28-bpx377.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427419/original/file-20211020-28-bpx377.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427419/original/file-20211020-28-bpx377.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427419/original/file-20211020-28-bpx377.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Under the Paris Agreement, nations should increase their climate ambition every five years.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>What is the Paris Agreement?</h2>
<p>The 2015 Paris Agreement is a curious instrument, allowing countries to nominate their own emissions-reduction targets and related actions. This discretionary arrangement was the only option to ensure support and compliance by individual states, especially the United States and China. </p>
<p>In 2015, Australia’s first target was to reduce emissions by 26–28% below 2005 levels by 2030. It was well below the <a href="https://www.climatechangeauthority.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-06/CFI/CCA-statement-on-Australias-2030-target.pdf">45–65% reduction</a> recommended by Australia’s Climate Change Authority. </p>
<p>In combination, the first emissions-reduction pledges made by the 195 signatories to the Paris Agreement was insufficient. They put the world on track for global warming of at least 3.5°C above pre-industrial levels this century – far higher than the Paris Agreement goals of limiting warming to 2°C, while aiming for no more than 1.5°C .</p>
<p>So the Agreement also <a href="https://unfccc.int/files/meetings/paris_nov_2015/application/pdf/paris_agreement_english_.pdf">requires</a> nations to amend their targets every five years. These amendments are required to “represent a progression” beyond the last plan and “reflect a country’s highest possible ambition”. </p>
<p>Specifically, each country with a 2030 target – such as Australia – is expected to update its contribution by 2020 (a deadline pushed out by COVID to 2021).</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-cop26-and-why-does-the-fate-of-earth-and-australias-prosperity-depend-on-it-169648">What is COP26 and why does the fate of Earth, and Australia's prosperity, depend on it?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="World leaders pose for a group photo at the Paris conference in 2015." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427159/original/file-20211019-27-wpzjp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427159/original/file-20211019-27-wpzjp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427159/original/file-20211019-27-wpzjp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427159/original/file-20211019-27-wpzjp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427159/original/file-20211019-27-wpzjp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427159/original/file-20211019-27-wpzjp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427159/original/file-20211019-27-wpzjp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Paris Agreement entered into force in 2016, following the Paris climate change conference in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jacky Naegelen/AP/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Breaking our legal obligations</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/abs/principle-pacta-sunt-servanda-and-the-nature-of-obligation-under-international-law/B47C86674546DA409153A7206A524110">fundamental principle</a> of international law – and arguably the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/pacta-sunt-servanda">oldest</a> – is “pacta sunt servanda”, which means “agreements must be kept”. It is essential to the functioning of the global treaty system.</p>
<p>Although the Paris Agreement does not include enforcement mechanisms, it is nonetheless a legally binding treaty and so, according to the “pacta sunt servanda” principle, must be implemented in good faith. </p>
<p>In practice, major developed countries have shown they understand “updating” to refer to toughening short-term targets, separate from a commitment to the longer term aim of net-zero by 2050.</p>
<p>For example, in December 2020 <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/uk-announces-68-emissions-goal-by-2030-ahead-of-un-summit/">the United Kingdom</a> lifted its 2030 target from 57% to 68% below 1990 levels. <a href="https://reneweconomy.com.au/germany-lifts-2030-renewable-energy-target-65-12576/">Germany</a> has increased its target from 55% to 65% below 1990 levels. The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/04/22/fact-sheet-president-biden-sets-2030-greenhouse-gas-pollution-reduction-target-aimed-at-creating-good-paying-union-jobs-and-securing-u-s-leadership-on-clean-energy-technologies/">United States</a> will now aim for a 50-52% reduction below 2005 levels by 2030. </p>
<p>Australia, on the other hand, has not budged on its short-term ambition. Its 2020 <a href="https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/ndcstaging/PublishedDocuments/Australia%20First/Australia%20NDC%20recommunication%20FINAL.PDF">formal communication</a> to the United Nations lists a raft of policy initiatives. But there is no change to its old 2030 target.</p>
<p>This failure builds on Coalition’s record of undermining international climate agreements, <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-wars-carbon-taxes-and-toppled-leaders-the-30-year-history-of-australias-climate-response-in-brief-169545">stretching back</a> to 1997 when the Howard government first negotiated extraordinarily favourable emissions targets but ultimately refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. </p>
<p>Howard’s recalcitrance contributed to an eight-year delay before the protocol came into legal force, and slowed global efforts to reduce emissions. Australia finally ratified the Protocol in 2007, under the Rudd government.</p>
<p>Morrison adds to this record as he continues to dither. His failure is puzzling, given the absence of threats to his prime ministership, and the <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/for-the-love-of-god-act-now-churc%E2%80%A6">clear support</a> for tougher emissions targets from business, farmers and in crucial rural seats.</p>
<p>What’s more, Australia is actually already tracking towards emissions reductions of 30-38% below 2005 levels by 2030.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/yes-australia-can-beat-its-2030-emissions-target-but-the-morrison-government-barely-lifted-a-finger-169835">Yes, Australia can beat its 2030 emissions target. But the Morrison government barely lifted a finger</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427426/original/file-20211020-17-1pxwvfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427426/original/file-20211020-17-1pxwvfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427426/original/file-20211020-17-1pxwvfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427426/original/file-20211020-17-1pxwvfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427426/original/file-20211020-17-1pxwvfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427426/original/file-20211020-17-1pxwvfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427426/original/file-20211020-17-1pxwvfm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Morrison government has not increased the ambition of its 2030 target.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>National climate target law</h2>
<p>So how can we ensure Australia abides by international laws, both in terms of the letter and the spirit? </p>
<p>Under our Constitution, unless the substance of an international treaty signed by Australia is also enacted in Australian law, that treaty has <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/CIB/cib9596/96cib17">no legal hold</a> over domestic behaviour.</p>
<p>No federal government – Coalition or Labor – has embedded Australia’s emissions-reduction targets in law. Most recently, in 2018, then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull sought to do so as part of the proposed National Energy Guarantee. Internal party tensions <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/aug/17/turnbull-ditches-emissions-legislation-to-head-off-backbench-dissent">forced him to dump</a> that legislative plan – but not soon enough to prevent him being dropped as leader.</p>
<p>Those times have passed; parliamentary support for climate action is now overwhelming.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-wars-carbon-taxes-and-toppled-leaders-the-30-year-history-of-australias-climate-response-in-brief-169545">Climate wars, carbon taxes and toppled leaders: the 30-year history of Australia’s climate response, in brief</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The absence of legislative teeth means no one can be held accountable if Australia misses its emissions goals. That means the Morrison government has been able to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/oct/05/new-coalmine-mangoola-nsw-muswellbrook-approved-australia-environment-minister-sussan-ley">approve</a> new coal mines and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-26/scott-morrison-climate-change-fossil-fuel-subsidies-net-zero/100094506">subsidise</a> coal-fired power generation and gas expansion without fear of punishment or redress.</p>
<p>By contrast, many other countries - for instance, the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/27/contents">UK</a>, <a href="https://www.bmk.gv.at/en/topics/climate-environment/climate-protection/austrian-climate-change-act.html">Austria</a>, <a href="https://climate-laws.org/geographies/denmark/laws/the-climate-act">Denmark</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.scot/policies/climate-change/">Scotland</a> - have established effective national climate laws, setting long-term and interim targets with associated mechanisms for reviewing and requiring progress. </p>
<p>Many include mechanisms for systematic review and are regularly amended to bring them into line with the targets and other provisions of the Paris Agreement.</p>
<p>The recognised gold standard for such climate legislation is the UK Climate Change Act 2008, which includes:</p>
<ul>
<li>interim and final targets, and related implementation mechanisms</li>
<li>an independent committee with science-informed processes for reviewing progress</li>
<li>mechanisms for setting and regularly increasing ambition over time</li>
<li>parliamentary accountability mechanisms and the basis for whole-of-government planning and coordination.</li>
</ul>
<p>Four Australian states and territories – Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT - have developed similar tough framework legislation. Indeed, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14693062.2021.1979927?tab=permissions&scroll=top">recent research</a> shows we were once global leaders: South Australia was the first jurisdiction in the world to enact such a law. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="man at lectern" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427420/original/file-20211020-15-1iwy7go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427420/original/file-20211020-15-1iwy7go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427420/original/file-20211020-15-1iwy7go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427420/original/file-20211020-15-1iwy7go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427420/original/file-20211020-15-1iwy7go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427420/original/file-20211020-15-1iwy7go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427420/original/file-20211020-15-1iwy7go.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The administration of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has enshrined the nation’s climate targets in law.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Overcoming past failures</h2>
<p>Without a stringent and binding plan to minimise national emissions in the short term, a 2050 net-zero target is vacuous. </p>
<p>Without a national climate law, the problems of the past will persist. National policies and effort will remain uncoordinated, investors will face continued uncertainty and economic opportunities will continue to be lost.</p>
<p>If Australia is really serious about climate action, Morrison must announce a new, tougher 2030 goal and enshrine it in law. This law must also include clear processes for coordinating, reviewing and enhancing national climate action. </p>
<p>The urgency and scale of the climate crisis demands it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170198/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Christoff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia is now taking a 2050 target to Glasgow, but this does not mean we are fulfilling the undertakings we made in Paris.Peter Christoff, Senior Research Fellow and Associate Professor, Melbourne Climate Futures initiative, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1694342021-10-20T17:19:04Z2021-10-20T17:19:04ZWhat is COP26? Here’s how global climate negotiations work and what’s expected from the Glasgow summit<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427135/original/file-20211019-20-1fljk4s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=125%2C88%2C1663%2C1152&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.N. climate summits bring together representatives of almost every country.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/unfccc/49216979356/in/album-72157711934280806/">UNFCCC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/que-es-la-cop26-explicamos-como-funcionan-las-negociaciones-sobre-cambio-climatico-y-que-se-espera-de-la-cumbre-de-glasgow-170478">Leer en español</a></em></p>
<p>Over two weeks in November, world leaders and national negotiators will meet in Scotland to discuss what to do about climate change. It’s a complex process that can be hard to make sense of from the outside, but it’s how international law and institutions help solve problems that no single country can fix on its own.</p>
<p>I worked for the United Nations for several years as a law and policy adviser and have been involved in international negotiations. Here’s what’s happening behind closed doors and why people are concerned that COP26 might not meet its goals.</p>
<h2>What is COP26?</h2>
<p>In 1992, countries agreed to an international treaty called <a href="https://unfccc.int/process/the-convention/history-of-the-convention#eq-1">the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change</a> (UNFCCC), which set ground rules and expectations for global cooperation on combating climate change. It was the first time the majority of nations formally recognized the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-convention/what-is-the-united-nations-framework-convention-on-climate-change">need to control greenhouse gas emissions</a>, which cause global warming that drives climate change.</p>
<p>That treaty has since been updated, including in 2015 when nations signed the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement">Paris climate agreement</a>. That agreement set the goal of limiting global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F), and preferably to 1.5 C (2.7 F), <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/">to avoid catastrophic climate change</a>.</p>
<p>COP26 stands for the 26th Conference of Parties to the UNFCCC. The “<a href="https://unfccc.int/process/parties-non-party-stakeholders/parties-convention-and-observer-states">parties</a>” are the 196 countries that ratified the treaty plus the European Union. <a href="https://ukcop26.org/">The United Kingdom, partnering with Italy,</a> is hosting COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, from Oct. 31 through Nov. 12, 2021, after a one-year postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p><iframe id="FAnL5" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/FAnL5/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Why are world leaders so focused on climate change?</h2>
<p>The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest report, released in August 2021, warns in its strongest terms yet that <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_SPM.pdf">human activities have unequivocally</a> warmed the planet, and that climate change is now widespread, rapid and intensifying.</p>
<p>The IPCC’s scientists explain how <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-relentless-seemingly-small-shifts-have-big-consequences-166139">climate change has been fueling</a> extreme <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-water-cycle-is-intensifying-as-the-climate-warms-ipcc-report-warns-that-means-more-intense-storms-and-flooding-165590">weather events and flooding</a>, severe <a href="https://theconversation.com/extreme-heat-waves-in-a-warming-world-dont-just-break-records-they-shatter-them-164919">heat waves and droughts</a>, loss and <a href="https://theconversation.com/protecting-half-of-the-planet-is-the-best-way-to-fight-climate-change-and-biodiversity-loss-weve-mapped-the-key-places-to-do-it-144908">extinction of species</a>, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ipcc-climate-report-profound-changes-are-underway-in-earths-oceans-and-ice-a-lead-author-explains-what-the-warnings-mean-165588">melting of ice sheets and rising of sea levels</a>. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called the report a <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/08/1097362">“code red for humanity.”</a></p>
<p>Enough greenhouse gas emissions are already in the atmosphere, and they stay there long enough, that <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/#SPM">even under the most ambitious scenario</a> of countries quickly reducing their emissions, the world will experience rising temperatures through at least mid-century.</p>
<p>However, there remains a narrow window of opportunity. If countries can cut global emissions to “<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-companies-pledge-net-zero-emissions-to-fight-climate-change-but-what-does-that-really-mean-166547">net zero</a>” by 2050, that could bring warming back to under 1.5 C in the second half of the 21st century. How to get closer to that course is what leaders and negotiators are discussing.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Guterres standing at a podium with #TimeForAction on the screen behind him" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427131/original/file-20211019-24-p2pqiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2048%2C1361&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427131/original/file-20211019-24-p2pqiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427131/original/file-20211019-24-p2pqiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427131/original/file-20211019-24-p2pqiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427131/original/file-20211019-24-p2pqiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427131/original/file-20211019-24-p2pqiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427131/original/file-20211019-24-p2pqiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called the latest climate science findings a ‘code red for humanity.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/unfccc/49214530846/in/album-72157711934280806/">UNFCCC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What happens at COP26?</h2>
<p>During the first days of the conference, around 120 heads of state, like U.S. President Joe Biden, and their representatives will gather to demonstrate their political commitment to slowing climate change.</p>
<p>Once the heads of state depart, country delegations, often led by ministers of environment, engage in days of negotiations, events and exchanges <a href="https://gizmodo.com/your-guide-to-cop26-the-world-s-most-important-climate-1847845039">to adopt their positions, make new pledges and join new initiatives</a>. These interactions are based on months of prior discussions, policy papers and proposals prepared by groups of states, U.N. staff and other experts.</p>
<p>Nongovernmental organizations and business leaders also attend the conference, and <a href="https://www.ed.ac.uk/sustainability/cop26/what-is-cop26">COP26 has a public side</a> with sessions focused on topics such as the impact of climate change on small island states, forests or agriculture, as well as exhibitions and other events.</p>
<p>The meeting ends with an outcome text that all countries agree to. Guterres <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/12/1053561">publicly expressed disappointment</a> with the COP25 outcome, and there are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/27/cop26-climate-talks-will-not-fulfil-aims-of-paris-agreement-key-players-warn">signs of trouble</a> heading into COP26.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Greta Thunberg raises an eyebrow during a session at COP25" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427139/original/file-20211019-16-1v9qz6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427139/original/file-20211019-16-1v9qz6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427139/original/file-20211019-16-1v9qz6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427139/original/file-20211019-16-1v9qz6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427139/original/file-20211019-16-1v9qz6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427139/original/file-20211019-16-1v9qz6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427139/original/file-20211019-16-1v9qz6p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Celebrities like youth climate activist Greta Thunberg add public pressure on world leaders.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/unfccc/49193291713">UNFCCC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What is COP26 expected to accomplish?</h2>
<p>Countries are required under the Paris Agreement to update their national climate action plans every five years, including at COP26. This year, they’re expected to have ambitious targets through 2030. These are known as <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/nationally-determined-contributions-ndcs/nationally-determined-contributions-ndcs">nationally determined contributions, or NDCs</a>.</p>
<p>The Paris Agreement requires countries to report their NDCs, but it allows them leeway in determining how they reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The initial <a href="https://www.wri.org/insights/which-countries-will-strengthen-their-national-climate-commitments-ndcs-2020">set of emission reduction targets in 2015 </a>was far too weak to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.</p>
<p>One key goal of COP26 is to ratchet up these targets to reach <a href="https://ukcop26.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/COP26-Explained.pdf">net zero carbon emissions</a> by the middle of the century.</p>
<p>Another aim of COP26 is <a href="https://ukcop26.org/cop26-goals/finance/">to increase climate finance</a> to help poorer countries transition to clean energy and adapt to climate change. This is an important issue of justice for many developing countries <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/climate-change-burden-unfairly-borne-by-worlds-poorest-countries/a-40726908">whose people bear the largest burden</a> from climate change but have contributed least to it. Wealthy countries promised in 2009 to contribute <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/06/1094762">$100 billion a year</a> by 2020 to help developing nations, <a href="https://www.oecd.org/newsroom/statement-from-oecd-secretary-general-mathias-cormann-on-climate-finance-in-2019.htm">a goal that has not been reached</a>. The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/us-seeks-double-climate-change-aid-developing-nations-biden-2021-09-21/">U.S.</a>, U.K. and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/eu-pledges-extra-4-billion-euros-international-climate-finance-2021-09-15/">EU</a>, among the largest historic greenhouse emitters, are increasing their financial commitments, and banks, businesses, insurers and private investors are being asked to do more.</p>
<p><a href="https://ukcop26.org/cop26-goals/">Other objectives</a> include phasing out coal use and generating solutions that preserve, restore or regenerate natural carbon sinks, such as forests.</p>
<p>Another challenge that has derailed past COPs is agreeing on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/11/what-is-cop26-and-why-does-it-matter-the-complete-guide">implementing a carbon trading system</a> outlined in the Paris Agreement.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man stands in a street market smoking, with cooling towers for a power plant behind him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427370/original/file-20211019-15-w8tgxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427370/original/file-20211019-15-w8tgxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427370/original/file-20211019-15-w8tgxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427370/original/file-20211019-15-w8tgxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427370/original/file-20211019-15-w8tgxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427370/original/file-20211019-15-w8tgxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427370/original/file-20211019-15-w8tgxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chinese street vendors sell vegetables outside a state-owned coal-fired power plant in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chinese-street-vendors-sell-vegetables-at-a-local-market-news-photo/800065596?adppopup=true">Kevin Frayer/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Are countries on track to meet the international climate goals?</h2>
<p><a href="https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cma2021_08_adv_1.pdf">The U.N. warned</a> in September 2021 that countries’ revised targets were too weak and would leave the world on pace to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58600723">warm 2.7 C</a> (4.9 F) by the end of the century. However, governments are also facing another challenge this fall that could affect how they respond: <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/energy-crisis-fossil-fuel-investment-renewables-gas-oil-prices-coal-wind-solar-hydro-power-grid-11634497531">Energy supply shortages</a> have left Europe and China with price spikes for natural gas, coal and oil.</p>
<p><a href="https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/NDCStaging/pages/Party.aspx?party=CHN">China</a> – the world’s largest emitter – <a href="https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/NDCStaging/pages/Party.aspx?party=CHN&prototype=1">submitted an updated NDC</a> on Oct. 28 with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/28/climate/china-climate-pledge.html">little change</a> from pledges it announced almost a year ago. Major fossil fuel producers such as <a href="https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/NDCStaging/pages/Party.aspx?party=RUS">Russia</a> and <a href="https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/NDCStaging/pages/Party.aspx?party=AUS">Australia</a> seem unwilling to strengthen their commitments. <a href="https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/NDCStaging/pages/Party.aspx?party=SAU">Saudi Arabia</a> strengthened its targets but <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/10/25/saudi-pledges-net-zero-2060-no-oil-exit-plan/">doesn’t count exports of oil and gas</a>, which it says it will continue producing. <a href="https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/NDCStaging/pages/Party.aspx?party=IND">India</a> – a critical player as the second-largest consumer, producer and importer of coal globally – has also not yet committed.</p>
<p>Other developing nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa and Mexico are important. So is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/14/amazon-rainforest-will-collapse-if-bolsonaro-remains-president">Brazil, which, under Jair Bolsonaro’s</a> watch, has increased deforestation of the Amazon – the world’s largest rainforest and crucial for biodiversity and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.</p>
<h2>What happens if COP26 doesn’t meet its goals?</h2>
<p>Many insiders believe that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/27/cop26-climate-talks-will-not-fulfil-aims-of-paris-agreement-key-players-warn">COP26 won’t reach its goal</a> of having strong enough commitments from countries to cut global greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030. That means the world won’t be on a smooth course for reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and the goal of keeping warming under 1.5 C.</p>
<p>But organizers maintain that keeping warming under 1.5 C is still possible. Former Secretary of State <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-biden-and-kerry-could-rebuild-americas-global-climate-leadership-150120">John Kerry, who has been leading</a> the U.S. negotiations, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/oct/11/john-kerry-cop26-climate-summit-starting-line-rest-of-decade?utm_term=8901953fa850909d49e2c2322006a128&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUS_email">remains hopeful</a> that enough countries will create momentum for others to strengthen their reduction targets by 2025.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Line chart showing pledges and current policies far from a trajectory that could meet the 1.5C goal." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427137/original/file-20211019-27-15b72pt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427137/original/file-20211019-27-15b72pt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427137/original/file-20211019-27-15b72pt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427137/original/file-20211019-27-15b72pt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=279&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427137/original/file-20211019-27-15b72pt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427137/original/file-20211019-27-15b72pt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427137/original/file-20211019-27-15b72pt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=351&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The world is not on track to meet the Paris goals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://climateactiontracker.org/global/temperatures/">Climate Action Tracker</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The cost of failure is astronomical. Studies have shown that <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/">the difference between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius</a> can mean the submersion of small island states, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/coral-reefs-are-dying-as-climate-change-decimates-ocean-ecosystems-vital-to-fish-and-humans-164743">death of coral reefs</a>, extreme heat waves, flooding and wildfires, and pervasive crop failure.</p>
<p>That translates into many premature deaths, more mass migration, major economic losses, large swaths of unlivable land and violent conflict over resources and food – what the U.N. secretary-general has called <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/node/259808">“a hellish future.”</a></p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-important">Get The Conversation’s most important politics headlines, in our Politics Weekly newsletter</a>.</em>]</p>
<p><em>This article was updated Oct. 29, 2021, with China and Saudi Arabia submitting their NDCs.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169434/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shelley Inglis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A former UN adviser explains what happens at climate summits like COP26 and why people fear this one won’t meet its goals.Shelley Inglis, Executive Director, University of Dayton Human Rights Center, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1700032021-10-20T11:35:36Z2021-10-20T11:35:36ZEnding coal use blighted Scottish communities – a just transition to a green economy must support workers<p>While walking on Glasgow Green in 1765, James Watt had a <a href="https://jameswatt.scot/2018/08/08/audio-watts-eureka-moment-on-glasgow-green/">eureka moment</a> that led to the development of a more efficient steam engine, making coal-powered industry and transport possible. In November, a city with a claim to the dubious mantle of having invented the modern carbon economy will host the most pressing UN climate change conference yet – COP26.</p>
<p>Neither Scotland nor the UK have the strongest record when it comes to transitioning fairly away from fossil fuels. The country’s decarbonisation has so far largely been a product of decommissioning coal-fired power stations after the acceleration of pit closures under Conservative governments during the 1980s and 1990s. This left <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-labor-and-working-class-history/article/abs/broken-men-and-thatchers-children-memory-and-legacy-in-scotlands-coalfields/B5DC1A8CFFC64F3217C9F46571010412">deep social and economic scars</a>, and the legacy of deindustrialisation continues to blight the former Scottish coalfields with acute education and health <a href="https://www.coalfields-regen.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/The-State-of-the-Coalfields-2019.pdf">inequalities</a>.</p>
<p>Now the country needs to shed its economic reliance on oil and gas, which provides essential employment for a large number of people. So how could Scotland set a new example for the world to follow, with a just transition to low-carbon energy production that supports those who will lose their jobs as a result.</p>
<p>Glasgow was the centre of a Scottish industrial economy at its peak a century ago. Comfortably over 100,000 Scots worked in coal mining and hundreds of thousands of others were employed in steelmaking, railway engineering and shipbuilding. That old industrial economy has all but disappeared. </p>
<p>In its place, the growth of oil and gas extraction in the North Sea during the 1970s and 1980s has offered compensatory employment. The Scottish government recently estimated that oil and gas sustained around <a href="https://www.gov.scot/policies/oil-and-gas/">100,000 jobs</a>, about 4% of the Scottish workforce. This carbon-intensive industry provides, as one <a href="https://sourcenews.scot/gmb-attack-trade-union-backed-climate-change-just-transition-committee/">trade union official</a> put it, “one of the increasingly few examples today of working-class prosperity”.</p>
<p>Conditioned by four decades of deindustrialisation and the decline of stable middle-income employment, oil and gas workers are right to be wary of government promises around decarbonisation today. The idea of a just transition is supposed to neutralise these worries, by giving workers in carbon-intensive sectors a chance to retrain and lead the development of the green industries of the future, like offshore wind and solar energy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A yellow offshore oil and gas platform." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427201/original/file-20211019-16-1owjqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427201/original/file-20211019-16-1owjqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427201/original/file-20211019-16-1owjqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427201/original/file-20211019-16-1owjqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427201/original/file-20211019-16-1owjqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427201/original/file-20211019-16-1owjqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427201/original/file-20211019-16-1owjqfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What does the future look like for Scotland’s oil and gas workers?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/offshore-construction-platform-production-oil-gas-705069415">Mr.PK/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>American union leader <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2190/NS.21.1.a">Tony Mazzocchi</a>, who represented oil, nuclear and chemical workers during the late 20th century, first laid the groundwork for this concept with his vision of the right for workers to “work in healthy and safe jobs and to live in communities that are part of life-sustaining ecosystems.”</p>
<p>The Scottish government’s just transition commission, which was set up to establish principles for policy and create a partnership with workers and industry, was inspired by Mazzocchi’s ideas. Its members included business and union representatives from the energy sector, as well as academic economists. The commission <a href="https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/advice-and-guidance/2021/03/transition-commission-national-mission-fairer-greener-scotland/documents/transition-commission-national-mission-fairer-greener-scotland/transition-commission-national-mission-fairer-greener-scotland/govscot:document/transition-commission-national-mission-fairer-greener-scotland.pdf?forceDownload=true">reported</a> earlier in 2021 that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The story of how Scotland lost much of its heavy industry through the 70s and 80s is … an example of how not to manage structural change.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The energy transition</h2>
<p>So what does Scotland’s green and just future look like? In 2020, <a href="https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/statistics/2018/10/quarterly-energy-statistics-bulletins/documents/energy-statistics-summary---march-2021/energy-statistics-summary---march-2021/govscot:document/Scotland+Energy+Statistics+Q4+2020.pdf">Scotland</a> almost generated its entire electricity demand from renewables, most of it 23 terawatt-hour’s worth of wind power. This record output also helped the country export nearly 20 terawatt-hours of electricity.</p>
<p>The Scottish government will cite these world-leading achievements while hosting COP26. But Scotland’s record on jobs and industry is less impressive. Employment in low-carbon sectors such as wind power has actually <a href="https://stuc.org.uk/media-centre/news/1587/major-new-green-jobs-report-estimates-up-to-367-000-jobs-in-scotland">fallen</a> in the country since 2016. For workers in carbon-intensive sectors who are eager to transfer to green jobs, these trends aren’t promising.</p>
<p>I was part of a team from the universities of Glasgow and Newcastle which <a href="https://www.unitetheunion.org/news-events/news/2020/october/new-research-finds-vast-majority-of-rolls-royce-inchinnan-workers-have-not-found-re-employment-as-unite-demands-government-support/">surveyed</a> workers laid off at Rolls Royce’s Inchinnan aeroengine plant in 2020. There were 700 redundancies, and most workers were struggling to find reemployment. While engineers demonstrated a strong interest in renewable energy, few had found appropriate jobs, even after some funded their own retraining. </p>
<p>Another <a href="https://platformlondon.org/p-publications/offshore-oil-and-gas-workers-views/">survey</a> of around 1,400 North Sea oil workers conducted during the 2020 price nadir found that over 40% had been furloughed and that over 80% were willing to start work in other sectors such as renewables.</p>
<p>But the recent <a href="https://www.heraldscotland.com/business_hq/19565895.campbeltown-wind-tower-manufacturer-collapses-administration/">closure</a> of a yard at Machrihanish near Campbeltown where workers have built wind turbines since 2001 suggests the Scottish government isn’t seizing the opportunity to unite precarious workers in the fossil fuel sector around its decarbonisation plans.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A spinning wind turbine at night." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427198/original/file-20211019-14-cm3o5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/427198/original/file-20211019-14-cm3o5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427198/original/file-20211019-14-cm3o5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427198/original/file-20211019-14-cm3o5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427198/original/file-20211019-14-cm3o5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427198/original/file-20211019-14-cm3o5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/427198/original/file-20211019-14-cm3o5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scotland’s wind turbines generated 23 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/berryburn-wind-turbine-scottish-night-sky-573552109">Euan Brownlie/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A better approach</h2>
<p>Most Scottish politicians agree that offshore oil and gas workers must not suffer the same fate as the coalfields. Guaranteeing that appears to be more difficult. The Scottish government’s decision to <a href="https://www.insider.co.uk/news/scottish-government-drops-national-energy-24937971">abandon</a> plans for a publicly-owned energy company shows a willingness to leave leadership of the sector to volatile market forces. As do primarily UK government <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-923X.12962">subsidies</a> which don’t do enough to incentivise using local suppliers to build wind turbines.</p>
<p>A just transition is only possible if the government tackles inequality with the same vigour as climate change. It would mean building new industries which use Scotland’s natural advantages and emerging technology, such as tidal power. This would potentially have higher initial costs for the national economy than relying on imports of renewable energy equipment, but subsidising and protecting domestic firms could ensure they enjoy the eventual benefits from developing these sectors. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.eesc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/files/fothergill.pdf">Carbon taxes</a> drove the UK’s dramatic withdrawal from coal-fired electricity in the 2010s. This shows what climate policy can achieve when it intervenes in the free market. Scottish oil and gas workers are eager to play their part. Now Scottish politicians must play theirs. </p>
<p>Tax changes alone won’t be enough to achieve the necessary shifts in renewables manufacturing. The control and ownership of both natural resources and the operation of supply chains will need to be confronted to ensure a just transition.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="COP26: the world's biggest climate talks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/424739/original/file-20211005-17-cgrf2z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>This story is part of The Conversation’s coverage on COP26, the Glasgow climate conference, by experts from around the world.</strong>
<br><em>Amid a rising tide of climate news and stories, The Conversation is here to clear the air and make sure you get information you can trust. <a href="https://page.theconversation.com/cop26-glasgow-2021-climate-change-summit/"><strong>More.</strong></a></em> </p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170003/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ewan Gibbs receives funding from the Carnegie Trust and the British Academy.</span></em></p>How governments can ensure phasing out oil and gas won’t do more damage.Ewan Gibbs, Lecturer in Global Inequalities, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1662332021-10-08T16:01:19Z2021-10-08T16:01:19ZJames McCune Smith: new discovery reveals how first African American doctor fought for women’s rights in Glasgow<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421090/original/file-20210914-15-2i37hj.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=34%2C14%2C973%2C667&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Engraving of James McCune Smith by Patrick H. Reason.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nyhistory.org/web/africanfreeschool/bios/james-mccune-smith.html">New York Historical Society</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>James McCune Smith was the first African American to receive a medical doctorate from a university. Born in 1813 to a poor South Carolina runaway slave who had escaped to New York City, he went on to attend Glasgow University during the 1830s. When he returned to America, he became a leading black physician, a tireless abolitionist, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FwvIir4VSX4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=black+hearts+of+men&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=black%20hearts%20of%20men&f=false">activist and journalist</a>.</p>
<p>McCune Smith led an amazing life. He exposed false medical data in the 1840 American census. He supported women’s suffrage alongside the noted feminist <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/susan-b-anthony">Susan B. Anthony</a>. And he wrote the introduction to Frederick Douglass’s sensational 1855 autobiographical slave narrative, <a href="https://archive.org/details/mybondagemyfreed00indoug">My Bondage and My Freedom</a>.</p>
<p>Now, for the first time, my research has revealed that McCune Smith was also the first African American known to be published in a British medical journal – and that he used this platform to reveal a cover-up by an ambitious medical professor who was experimenting on vulnerable women in Glasgow in the 1830s.</p>
<p>I am a historian of science and medicine. I study how people learned scientific skills and I am especially intrigued by the history of how scientists and physicians made discoveries and how that knowledge then circulated between the academy and the public.</p>
<p>One way to track this process is to compare what students learned in educational settings to how they used their scientific training to solve problems and make decisions later in life. My forthcoming book, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/3769533/Media_and_the_Mind_Art_Science_and_Notebooks_as_Paper_Machines_1700_1830_Chicago_University_of_Chicago_Press_2022_550_pp_60_figures">Media and the Mind</a>, for example, uses school and university notebooks to reconstruct how students historically learned to create, analyse and visualise scientific data in ways that helped them understand the human body and the natural world when they finished their education. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Black and white photograph of a man." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421555/original/file-20210916-17-1fmymfm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421555/original/file-20210916-17-1fmymfm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421555/original/file-20210916-17-1fmymfm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421555/original/file-20210916-17-1fmymfm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=783&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421555/original/file-20210916-17-1fmymfm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=984&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421555/original/file-20210916-17-1fmymfm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=984&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421555/original/file-20210916-17-1fmymfm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=984&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Portrait of Frederick Douglass (1818-1895). Douglass, a former slave, was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer and statesman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.alamy.com/portrait-of-frederick-douglass-1818-1895-c1879-douglass-a-former-slave-was-an-american-social-reformer-abolitionist-orator-writer-and-statesman-image369103564.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=9734BCF8-26ED-47AA-9F2A-215197A21E9E&p=176541&n=3&orientation=0&pn=1&searchtype=0&IsFromSearch=1&srch=foo%3Dbar%26st%3D0%26sortby%3D2%26qt%3DFrederick%2520Douglas%26qt_raw%3DFrederick%2520Douglas%26qn%3D%26lic%3D3%26edrf%3D0%26mr%3D0%26pr%3D0%26aoa%3D1%26creative%3D%26videos%3D%26nu%3D%26ccc%3D%26bespoke%3D%26apalib%3D%26ag%3D0%26hc%3D0%26et%3D0x000000000000000000000%26vp%3D0%26loc%3D0%26ot%3D0%26imgt%3D0%26dtfr%3D%26dtto%3D%26size%3D0xFF%26blackwhite%3D%26cutout%3D%26archive%3D1%26name%3D%26groupid%3D%26pseudoid%3D818036%26userid%3D%26id%3D%26a%3D%26xstx%3D0%26cbstore%3D1%26resultview%3DsortbyPopular%26lightbox%3D%26gname%3D%26gtype%3D%26apalic%3D%26tbar%3D1%26pc%3D%26simid%3D%26cap%3D1%26customgeoip%3DGB%26vd%3D0%26cid%3D%26pe%3D%26so%3D%26lb%3D%26pl%3D0%26plno%3D%26fi%3D0%26langcode%3Den%26upl%3D0%26cufr%3D%26cuto%3D%26howler%3D%26cvrem%3D0%26cvtype%3D0%26cvloc%3D0%26cl%3D0%26upfr%3D%26upto%3D%26primcat%3D%26seccat%3D%26cvcategory%3D*%26restriction%3D%26random%3D%26ispremium%3D1%26flip%3D0%26contributorqt%3D%26plgalleryno%3D%26plpublic%3D0%26viewaspublic%3D0%26isplcurate%3D0%26imageurl%3D%26saveQry%3D%26editorial%3D%26t%3D0%26filters%3D0">IanDagnall Computing / Alamy Stock Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Several years ago, I decided to investigate the history of how the testimony of hospital patients was transformed into scientific data by physicians. I eventually stumbled across the 1837 case of a young Glasgow doctor who sought to expose painful experimental drug trials that had been conducted on the impoverished women of a local hospital. </p>
<p>That doctor was James McCune Smith. He had written articles detailing how the women of a local charity hospital were being subjected to a painful experimental drug. It was a career changing moment for me because I had not encountered this kind of activism in my previous research on <a href="https://www.academia.edu/1112014/The_Language_of_Mineralogy_John_Walker_Chemistry_and_the_Edinburgh_Medical_School_1750_1800_London_Routledge_2008_hardback_2016_paperback_Full_text">medical education</a>. </p>
<h2>Early life</h2>
<p>Who was this doctor? What led him to speak out? Where did he learn to place his knowledge of science and medicine in the service of equality and justice? Upon closer examination, despite his many accomplishments, virtually nothing had been written about McCune Smith’s time in Glasgow or about his work as a practising physician in New York. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/frederick-douglass-the-ex-slave-and-transatlantic-celebrity-who-found-freedom-in-newcastle-90886">Frederick Douglass: the ex-slave and transatlantic celebrity who found freedom in Newcastle</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Like the children of many runaway slaves in New York, McCune Smith grew up in Five Points, Lower Manhattan, one of the poorest and most densely populated urban areas of America at that time. Though the state fully emancipated all former slaves <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TZx6A_M0yjQC&vq=1827&dq=New+york+An+Act+Relative+to+Slaves+and+Servants,+1817&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s">in 1827</a>, when McCune Smith was a teenager, discriminatory educational policies, unsanitary living conditions, chronic illness and infectious diseases ensured that the prospects for a free African American teenager in the early part of the 19th century were limited. </p>
<p>Indeed, in an article entitled Freedom and Slavery for African-Americans, published in the New York Tribune in 1844, McCune Smith <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zQUqIOmsdLkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=stauffer+black+hearts+of+men&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=new%20york%20tribune&f=false">observed</a> that only six of the 100 boys who attended school with him from 1826 to 1827 were “still now living”. He noted further that they were “all white”. </p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288776/original/file-20190820-170910-8bv1s7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong><em>This story is part of Conversation Insights</em></strong>
<br><em>The Insights team generates <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/insights-series-71218">long-form journalism</a> and is working with academics from different backgrounds who have been engaged in projects to tackle societal and scientific challenges.</em> </p>
<hr>
<p>Though technically “free”, the lives of African Americans in New York during the 1820s and 1830s were marred by the legacy of slavery and discrimination. Runaway slaves were <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ahfQDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+kidnapping+club&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwioivPjvuLyAhWDnVwKHQMjDx4Q6AEwAHoECAsQAg#v=onepage&q=the%20kidnapping%20club&f=false">openly hunted</a> in the city’s alleys, streets and wharves. McCune Smith reflected on these events <a href="https://archive.org/details/memorialdiscour00garn/page/n7/mode/2up">in an essay</a> that he wrote about the life of his school classmate, Henry Highland Garnet.</p>
<p>An abolitionist and Presbyterian minister, Garnet was the first African American to speak before Congress. McCune Smith recalled the trauma experienced by Garnet’s family in 1829 when they were tracked by slave-hunters. They barely escaped by jumping out of a two-story building and hiding in the house of a local grocer. When they returned to their home they found, in the <a href="https://archive.org/details/memorialdiscour00garn/page/24/mode/2up">words of McCune Smith</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The entire household furniture of the family was destroyed or stolen; and they were obliged to start anew in life empty-handed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Despite many challenges, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=U4A7lqZHPokC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=black+gotham&source=gbs_navlinks_s">New York’s African Americans</a> founded their own businesses, churches, political associations, printing presses and more. In addition to receiving support and encouragement from a community of relatives and friends, McCune Smith’s path to becoming a doctor was significantly aided by his education at the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dkaODwAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=educated+for+freedom&source=gbs_navlinks_s">African Free School</a>. </p>
<p>Older students were taught penmanship, drawing, grammar, geography, astronomy, natural philosophy and navigation. When American universities denied his medical school applications, the free school community played a role in raising funds for him to attend Glasgow University.</p>
<h2>Progressive Glasgow</h2>
<p>After sailing from New York to Liverpool, McCune Smith arrived in Glasgow in 1832. Thanks to maritime trade, it was one of the largest cities in the country and the university’s medical school was one of the best in Europe. </p>
<p>Britain had prohibited the slave trade <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/tradeindustry/slavetrade/">in 1807</a> and it fully abolished slavery the year after his arrival in 1833. Though there were not many African Americans in Glasgow, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3RNwDwAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=britain+abolition+slavery&source=gbs_navlinks_s">black writers</a> had been operating in Britain since the 1770s. Then, in 1809 Edinburgh University admitted <a href="http://uncover-ed.org/1809-william-fergusson/">William Fergusson</a> who was from Jamaica and was the university’s first student of African descent. </p>
<p>Though he took medical courses at the university, Fergusson did not stay to complete a medical doctorate. Instead, he received a license from the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh in 1813. He then practised as a surgeon in the British military and eventually became governor of the then-British colony of Sierra Leone. McCune Smith joined the ranks of these torchbearers and became the first African American known to graduate with a BA, MA and medical doctorate from Glasgow University.</p>
<p>By the time McCune Smith began his studies in Glasgow, opposition to slavery had moved beyond the walls of the university. There was a active abolitionist community and it founded the <a href="http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2641/">Glasgow Emancipation Society</a> in 1833. McCune Smith, still only an undergraduate, was one of the founding members. After he graduated, a number of black students attended the university over the course of the century.</p>
<p>Despite living in a foreign country, McCune Smith excelled at his studies and received several academic awards. The Glasgow medical faculty placed equal emphasis on scientific rigour and hands-on clinical experience. In addition to learning chemistry, anatomy and physiology from some of Britain’s leading doctors, he witnessed cutting-edge experiments and new medical technologies being demonstrated in his lectures. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black and white image of a Glasgow street in the 1820s." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421103/original/file-20210914-17-hc38o2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421103/original/file-20210914-17-hc38o2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421103/original/file-20210914-17-hc38o2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421103/original/file-20210914-17-hc38o2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421103/original/file-20210914-17-hc38o2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421103/original/file-20210914-17-hc38o2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421103/original/file-20210914-17-hc38o2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An image of High Street, Glasgow, around 1821, looking south towards the Tolbooth Steeple at Glasgow Cross. The front of the Old College of the University of Glasgow is on the left side of the street, with the university tower looming above it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.theglasgowstory.com/image/?inum=TGSA01107&t=2">Mitchell Library/Joseph Swan</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He graduated with honours in 1837 and was immediately given a prestigious clinical residency in <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mHMIAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA194&dq=coats+medical+institutions+glasgow&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwix_MrY2eLyAhUGV8AKHT_KCbkQ6AEwAHoECAMQAg#v=snippet&q=lock%20hospital&f=false">Glasgow’s Lock Hospital</a>. He worked there alongside the eminent Scottish obstetrician and gynaecologist, <a href="https://archive.org/details/memorialsoffacul00dunc/page/274/mode/2up?q=cumin">William Cumin</a>, treating women who had contracted venereal diseases.</p>
<h2>Missing records and racist medical theories</h2>
<p>The difficulty in pursuing a project of this nature is that many of the scientific papers and publications of black physicians have been lost to the sands of time. Unlike the many collections that university libraries have dedicated to preserving the legacy of white doctors who were alumni or donors, there is no “James McCune Smith Medical Collection” where scholars can go to study his medical career and scientific ideas. </p>
<p>No one has yet told the full story of how African Americans like McCune Smith became doctors or how they used their knowledge of medical science to fight injustice and prejudice. The hidden histories of these black physicians based in countries spread around the Atlantic Ocean led me to start my current research project on how they used their scientific training to counter the rise of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Kn5IMQAACAAJ&dq=tropical+freedom&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&redir_esc=y">racist medical theories</a> – theories which erroneously suggested that black bodies were physically different from other bodies and could more easily withstand the stress, pain and labour of enslavement.</p>
<p>Though a number of McCune Smith’s <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zQUqIOmsdLkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=mccune+smith&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=mccune%20smith&f=false">articles</a> were republished several years ago, the whereabouts of his personal medical library, clinical notebooks, patient records, office ledgers and article drafts are unknown. Likewise, his manuscript Glasgow diary and letters have been lost. Though aspects of his career have received attention from historians in <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Black_Hearts_of_Men/FwvIir4VSX4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=black+hearts+of+men&printsec=frontcover">recent years</a>, a biography of his extraordinary life has not been written.</p>
<p>This was the situation when I discovered his efforts to expose the harmful drug trials that were being conducted on the women of the Glasgow Lock Hospital. The evidence consisted of two articles that he had published during the spring and summer of 1837 in the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TPQaAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA971&dq=%22m%27cune+smith%22+london+medical+gazette&hl=en&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=journal%201837&f=false">London Medical Gazette</a>, a weekly journal with articles about medicine and science. </p>
<p>I originally came upon these articles by reading page after page of medical journals housed in the <a href="https://www.nls.uk/">National Library of Scotland</a> in Edinburgh. When I found them, they immediately stood out because they took the testimony of poor female patients seriously. When I realised that McCune Smith was the first African American to graduate from a Scottish university, I could not believe what I had discovered.</p>
<h2>New discoveries</h2>
<p>Discovering McCune Smith’s articles was momentous because they are the first currently known to have been published by an African American medical doctor in any scientific journal. Scientists in the 19th century published articles for many reasons. Some wanted to popularise their research in a way that advanced their careers. Others hoped their research would benefit the general public. </p>
<p>The fascinating aspect about McCune Smith’s articles in relation to the historical emergence of the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tIRaDwAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=alex+csiszar&source=gbs_navlinks_s">scientific journal</a> is that they were published to expose the unethical misapplication of scientific experiments. This means that they offer new insight into how he learned to combine the power of the press with his medical training to fight inequality and injustice in Britain prior to returning to New York.</p>
<p>The story they tell is extraordinary. The events occurred in the spring and summer of 1837 while McCune Smith was serving in the Glasgow Lock Hospital as a resident physician in gynaecology. The hospital was a charity institution set up by the city for impoverished women suffering from acute venereal diseases such as gonorrhoea and syphilis. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A page of text from a medical journal." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423109/original/file-20210924-14-p0j994.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/423109/original/file-20210924-14-p0j994.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423109/original/file-20210924-14-p0j994.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423109/original/file-20210924-14-p0j994.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423109/original/file-20210924-14-p0j994.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423109/original/file-20210924-14-p0j994.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/423109/original/file-20210924-14-p0j994.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">McCune Smith’s article in the London Medical Gazette.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TPQaAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA971&dq=%22m%27cune+smith%22+london+medical+gazette&hl=en&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=journal%201837&f=false">Google Books</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After consulting the ward’s records and speaking with the patients, McCune Smith discovered that <a href="https://archive.org/details/memorialsoffacul00dunc/page/280/mode/2up?q=hannay">Alexander Hannay</a>, a senior doctor in the hospital, was treating women suffering from gonorrhoea with an experimental drug called <a href="https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Silver-nitrate">silver nitrate</a>, a compound that a handful of doctors used as a topical treatment for <a href="https://archive.org/details/essayonuseofnitr00higg/page/n9/mode/2up">infected skin tissue</a> or to stop bleeding. But it was normally used in low concentrations mixed into a solution, with doctors emphasising that it should be applied with caution and as a last resort.</p>
<p>But Hannay was administering the drug in a solid form, which meant that it was highly concentrated and caused a terrible burning sensation. He fancied this usage to be innovative and was relatively unfazed when his patients repeatedly asked for less painful forms of treatment. After speaking with the women and further consulting the hospital’s records, McCune Smith realised that Hannay was effectively treating the women as guinea pigs – as non-consenting participants – in an experimental trial that involved a very painful drug. </p>
<p>At that time, silver nitrate was a newly available substance and its long-term effects were relatively unknown. There were a handful of <a href="https://archive.org/details/essayonuseofnitr00higg/page/n9/mode/2up">military doctors</a> who used it experimentally to cauterise skin ulcers or wounds of soldiers that would not stop bleeding. But some medical books classified it as a <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TPQaAQAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&printsec=frontcover&pg=PA971&dq=%22m%27cune+smith%22+london+medical+gazette&hl=en&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=journal%201837&f=false">poison</a>. Glasgow’s medical students, particularly those who studied with Prof William Cumin, avoided using it on internal organs due to its unknown effects. Instead, when it came to gynaecological cases involving ulcers or infections, students learned to use an <a href="https://archive.org/details/principlesofmidw00burnuoft/page/312/mode/2up?q=alum">alum solution</a> because its effects were generally considered to be effective and less painful.</p>
<p>Hannay went beyond using the silver nitrate on the skin. He applied it to the internal reproductive organs of women, at least one of whom was pregnant. McCune Smith’s article pointed out that the baby subsequently died through complications surrounding a miscarriage. It also intimates that a few women died after the application of silver nitrate. Since the drug’s effect on internal organs was unknown, he believed that that the deaths could not be treated as a separate occurrence.</p>
<p>In addition to being McCune Smith’s superior, Hannay was a medical professor at Glasgow’s newly established <a href="https://universitystory.gla.ac.uk/building/?id=35">Anderson University</a>. The easiest thing for McCune Smith to do was to say nothing. The plight of the Lock Hospital patients would not have been a major concern for many medical men at the time. The patients were impoverished women and most doctors assumed they were former prostitutes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of an old Glasgow college building and tower." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421551/original/file-20210916-25-1moyy5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421551/original/file-20210916-25-1moyy5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421551/original/file-20210916-25-1moyy5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421551/original/file-20210916-25-1moyy5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421551/original/file-20210916-25-1moyy5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421551/original/file-20210916-25-1moyy5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421551/original/file-20210916-25-1moyy5y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anderson University, Glasgow, in the 1830s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/h8pckdyq/images?id=ykpgaavq">Wellcome Collection</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But McCune Smith’s perspective was different. Unlike his peers, he had spent his early years in New York City witnessing the pain and suffering caused by poverty, inequality and exploitation. So he decided to place his knowledge of medical science in the service of these women.</p>
<p>McCune Smith knew that there were other effective treatments for gonorrhoea. This allowed him to see that Hannay was more interested in bolstering his reputation with a pharmaceutical discovery than helping his patients. But his studies had given him another equally powerful tool – data analysis. His ability to use this tool can be seen in his London Medical Gazette articles. The gazette was a journal of some repute, serving the British medical community as well as physicians based in Europe and America. In his article, he wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The materials of my paper on the subject of gonorrhoea of women were collected whilst I held the office of clerk to the Glasgow Lock Hospital.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He made his case against the experiments by extracting figures from handwritten registers that recorded the condition of patients being treated in the hospital over an entire year. He had learned to collect, categorise, and analyse data in the clinical lectures that were required for graduation. This method was part of the new science of “vital statistics” that used medical data to predict or prevent disease in people, cities and even countries. Known as “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Ct_wofnMGlgC&dq=ultrich+troehler">medical statistics</a>” today, it was becoming more commonly used in journals that published articles on medical science. </p>
<h2>The cover-up</h2>
<p>McCune Smith’s articles showed that the drug trials were ineffective and presented an unwarranted risk. They also revealed that Hannay and his team of assistants had attempted to cover up data in the hospital records that damaged their claims about the drug’s efficacy and their position that its side effects were minimal. McCune Smith did not mince his words. He wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>By this novel and ingenious mode of recording the Hospital transactions for 1836, [Prof Hannay’s team] keeps out of view the evidence of the severity of the treatment, and the amount of mortality, while, at the same time, the residence of the patients in the house seems shorted, the cost of each diminished, and the treatment made to appear more than usually successful.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Accordingly, he called for the trials to stop immediately. But McCune Smith was not happy to simply cite statistics. He wanted to give these women a voice too. To achieve this, he emphasised the extreme pain that they were experiencing. Their suffering had been played down by those conducting the experimental trials. Hannay even suggested that the women were dishonest and unreliable witnesses. </p>
<p>To counter this suggestion, McCune Smith quoted the women themselves, some of whom said that the drug felt like it was “burning their inside with caustic”. This was strong language. They were effectively saying that the drug felt like a flame being applied to their bodies.</p>
<h2>‘Hidden gem’ in library archive</h2>
<p>McCune Smith’s decision to use this kind of visceral language on behalf of impoverished women in a scientific article was rare at the time. Nor was it common in the lengthy, fact-laden lectures given at Glasgow’s medical school. So where did McCune Smith learn to write like this? Finding an answer to this question has been difficult because hardly any of McCune Smith’s manuscripts from his Glasgow years are known to have survived. But thanks to a recent discovery that I made with the rare books librarian Robert MacLean in the Archives and Special Collections of Glasgow University, a better picture is starting to emerge. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A library borrowing register." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421563/original/file-20210916-27-lj9g5e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421563/original/file-20210916-27-lj9g5e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421563/original/file-20210916-27-lj9g5e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421563/original/file-20210916-27-lj9g5e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=722&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421563/original/file-20210916-27-lj9g5e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421563/original/file-20210916-27-lj9g5e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421563/original/file-20210916-27-lj9g5e.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">James McCune Smith’s name can be seen at the top of his library borrowing record.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert MacLean, with the permission of University of Glasgow Library ASC.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Based on my previous research on <a href="https://www.academia.edu/11429336/The_Interactive_Notebook_How_Students_Learned_to_Keep_Notes_during_the_Scottish_Enlightenment_Book_History_19_2016_87_131">Scottish student notekeeping</a>, I knew that Glasgow University kept handwritten registers of books borrowed by students from its libraries during the 19th century. Luckily, it turned out that McCune Smith’s manuscript library borrowing record did, in fact, still exist. It was a gem that had remained hidden for the past two centuries in the dusty pages of Glasgow’s library registers.</p>
<p>The discovery was historic because it revealed that he definitely took the university’s moral philosophy class. The course was taught by <a href="https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8941">James Mylne</a> and it encouraged students to judge the accuracy of statistical data when making moral decisions. The registers also showed that McCune Smith consulted the <a href="https://www.thelancet.com">Lancet</a>, the leading <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1498905/">medical journal</a> of research and reform that promoted the same kind of public health activism evinced in his 1837 Gazette articles.</p>
<p>Finding the student reading record for any historical figure is like striking gold. In McCune Smith’s case it was doubly exciting because so little is known about his intellectual development. In addition to literature relevant to his studies, he checked out several 1835 issues of the Lancet which regularly identified links between pain and maltreatment. </p>
<p>It is likely these accounts inspired him to use a similar approach in his gazette articles. But even the Lancet’s references to pain and cruelty barely addressed the plights of impoverished women, let alone those who had been regularly subjected to experimental drugs. In this respect McCune Smith’s concern for the Lock Hospital patients surpassed the reform agenda promoted by Britain’s most progressive medical journal.</p>
<h2>Legacy</h2>
<p>Further investigations have revealed that there were many other black physicians who lived in America in the decades after McCune Smith became a doctor. As revealed in research by the Massachusetts Historical Society, there was, for example, <a href="http://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2020/11/a-visit-with-dr-degrasse-the-medical-account-book-of-bostons-first-black-physician/">John van Surly DeGrasse</a>. He studied at Bowdoin College in Maine, received a medical doctorate in the 1840s, set up a practice in Boston and became the first African American member of the Massachusetts Medical Association. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421564/original/file-20210916-23-163oo43.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421564/original/file-20210916-23-163oo43.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421564/original/file-20210916-23-163oo43.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421564/original/file-20210916-23-163oo43.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421564/original/file-20210916-23-163oo43.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1194&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421564/original/file-20210916-23-163oo43.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1194&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421564/original/file-20210916-23-163oo43.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1194&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Van Surly DeGrasse was one of only two African American physicians who received a commission in the army.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/bindingwounds/exhibition.html">Massachusetts African American Museum and the Massachusetts Historical Society</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There was also <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26298851">Alexander Thomas Augusta</a>, who, despite Virginia laws that banned free blacks from learning to read, was educated by a minister, moved to Toronto and graduated from Trinity College’s medical school in 1856. Notably, both Augusta and DeGrasse served in the union army as physicians with the rank of major during the American Civil War.</p>
<p>After McCune Smith returned to America in the autumn of 1837, he served as a professional role model for African Americans who studied medicine from the 1840s onward. By the time younger black physicians such as DeGrasse and Augusta began their studies, McCune Smith had already opened a practice that served patients from both sides of the colour line and had published several scientific articles. For the rest of his career his name was a frequent byline in articles about health and society published by the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Y80OAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=african+american+press&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwid283ZkuXyAhWOXsAKHQqxB04Q6AEwAnoECAMQAg#v=onepage&q=african%20american%20press&f=false">African American press</a>, as well as larger newspapers with mixed readership, like the New York Tribune. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Old portait image of a Black man who served during the American Civil War." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421565/original/file-20210916-15-csxpml.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421565/original/file-20210916-15-csxpml.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421565/original/file-20210916-15-csxpml.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421565/original/file-20210916-15-csxpml.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421565/original/file-20210916-15-csxpml.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=991&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421565/original/file-20210916-15-csxpml.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=991&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421565/original/file-20210916-15-csxpml.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=991&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alexander Augusta became the first African American commissioned medical officer in the United States Army when he was appointed surgeon with the Union Army in April 1863.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/bindingwounds/inuniform.html">Oblate Sisters of Providence Archives</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An excellent example of McCune Smith’s later medical activism is the collection of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zQUqIOmsdLkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=stauffer+black+hearts+of+men&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=new%20york%20tribune&f=false">articles</a> that he published during the 1840s about the national census. The main issue was that slavery advocates had noticed that the mortality rates of African Americans in northern asylums were higher than those of black people in the southern states. This led them to conclude, erroneously, that freedom somehow damaged their mental and physical health.</p>
<p>Rather than engage with their desire to co-opt convenient data, McCune Smith used his knowledge of medical statistics to skillfully undermine their attempts to find scientific data that fit their discriminatory world view. He conducted his own investigation and proved that the original collection of the figures on site in the northern asylums had been flawed and that, as a result, the data was incorrect and could not be used to accurately determine the health of black asylum patients. </p>
<p>McCune Smith did not stop there. He turned the tables on slavery advocates by transforming the new accurate mortality statistics into a tool that could be used to fight inequality. His 1844 New York Tribune <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zQUqIOmsdLkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=stauffer+black+hearts+of+men&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=new%20york%20tribune&f=false">article</a> about the census concluded:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>These facts prove that within 15 years after it became a Free State, a portion of the Free Black Population of New York have improved the ratio of their mortality 13.28% – a fact without parallel in the history of any People.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Put simply, the correct data revealed that the health of African Americans unburdened by the deprivation and forced labour of slavery thrived once they left the south and lived lives as free citizens in the north. </p>
<p>McCune Smith’s publications are a significant early chapter in the history of how black activists have worked tirelessly over the past two centuries to disentangle erroneous interpretations of scientific data from discriminatory claims about poverty, gender and race. They provide crucial historical insight into the relationships between race, science and technology that exist <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=G6-hDwAAQBAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&printsec=frontcover&dq=race+after+technology&hl=en&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=race%20after%20technology&f=false">today</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/honouring-the-slaves-experimented-on-by-the-father-of-gynaecology-148273">Honouring the slaves experimented on by the 'father of gynaecology'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In many respects McCune Smith’s desire to locate and publicise correct data about asylum patients built on the approach that he had developed in his articles about the mistreatment of women in Glasgow’s Lock Hospital. He continued to publish articles throughout his career that challenged those who sought to use science to justify discrimination and inequality. In 1859 he even went so far as to challenge former President Thomas Jefferson’s discriminatory racial assumptions when he <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zQUqIOmsdLkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=stauffer+black+hearts+of+men&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=will%20forever%20prevent&f=false">wrote</a>: “His arrangement of these views is so mixed and confused, that we must depart from it.”</p>
<p>McCune Smith’s <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FwvIir4VSX4C&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=stauffer+black+hearts+of+men&source=gbs_navlinks_s">activism</a> showed aspiring African Americans that becoming a professional black physician could be more than simply treating patients. For him, being an expert in medical science also included using his training to fight injustice and inequality. </p>
<p>His publications are an indispensable chapter in the American history of science and medicine. But they are an important part of British history too. Because it was in Britain where he first published articles that placed his knowledge of medicine in the service of equality and justice. It was the libraries of Glasgow University – which now has a building <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-45776580">named in his honour</a> – and the wards of the Lock Hospital which fed his towering intellect and fired his passion for medical knowledge, as well as the pursuit of justice for the powerless and oppressed.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=112&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/313478/original/file-20200204-41481-1n8vco4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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</ul>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Daniel Eddy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>James McCune Smith was the first African American to receive a medical doctorate from a university. He dedicated his life to fighting injustice.Matthew Daniel Eddy, Professor and Chair in the History and Philosophy of Science, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1544182021-02-02T15:10:08Z2021-02-02T15:10:08ZFive charts that reveal how remote working could change the UK<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381973/original/file-20210202-21-1fg5vlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Look familiar?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-woman-worker-talk-brainstorm-on-1720923514">fizes</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>City centres lying empty because so many people are working from home <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/18/empty-city-centres-leeds-bristol-newcastle-im-not-sure-it-will-ever-be-the-same-again">have received</a> considerable <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53925917">media attention</a> since the <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-could-turn-cities-into-doughnuts-empty-centres-but-vibrant-suburbs-151406">pandemic took hold</a>. As the picture of a post-COVID world slowly comes into focus, it seems we are unlikely to return to the office in the same numbers as before. Large companies such as <a href="https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-8653893/Insurance-giant-Aviva-tests-time-working-offices.html">Aviva</a>, <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/dropbox-virtual-first">Dropbox</a> and <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/facebook-remote-work-silicon-valley-america-coronavirus-covid19">Facebook</a> have already committed to continuing remote working in the years to come. </p>
<p>This has important implications for where economic activity takes place. Not only will it affect city centres, it also means that many residential neighbourhoods are likely to change permanently. </p>
<p>To help understand these geographic shifts, we have recently published the results of a <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3752977">research project</a>. In this paper we show which neighbourhoods in the UK will be affected for better or worse and what it will mean for how the economy operates in future. In deference to the online meetings app that has become an ubiquitous part of remote office working, we decided to call these effects the zoomshock. </p>
<h2>Zoomshock nation</h2>
<p>We calculated the zoomshock as the change in economic activity due to working from home that has taken place within each UK neighbourhood. Simply put, this is the difference between two phenomena: the inflow of employment, which refers to people who live in a given neighbourhood and normally work elsewhere but are now working at home; and the outflow of employment, which is people who normally work in that neighbourhood but live elsewhere and are now working from home. </p>
<p>By our calculations, the potential reallocation of economic activity across different areas is large. The City of London, which is the heart of the UK financial services industry, could lose over 70% of its labour force if everyone who can work from home does so in the long term. This would equate to £9.1 billion in annual earnings. If the average worker only worked from home one day a week post-COVID, that would still account for £1.8 billion in lost activity, but it could well be that two or three days a week becomes the norm. </p>
<p>This economic activity will instead become less geographically concentrated, spread across different residential neighbourhoods. As an example, the local authority area of Lewisham in south-east London could see an increase in output of up to 60% relative to pre-COVID economic activity, or approximately £1 billion a year. You can see in the map below how we are forecasting this to play out across the capital, with shades of blue representing gains and shades of red representing losses. </p>
<p><strong>The effect on Greater London</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing which areas in Greater London will win and lose from remote working, explained in previous paragraph." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381774/original/file-20210201-23-blogsz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=712&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/bir/birmec/20-31.html">Matheson/De Fraja/Rockey</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This has implications beyond the demand for slippers and umbrellas. Many of us who commuted spent money on services while at work, whether train-station coffees, lunchtime gym or barber visits, or after-work drinks. After the pandemic is over, we expect the zoomshock to continue to substantially affect these locally consumed services. So a move towards home working will mean that people demand more haircuts, coffees and restaurant meals near their homes and fewer near their offices. </p>
<p>There is already evidence of the importance of these effects. As you can see in the diagram below, in the brief period of relaxed lockdown measures from July to November 2020, London authorities such as the City that were negatively affected by remote working took a greater hit in retail and entertainment activity compared to 2019 levels than authorities like Lewisham that were positively affected. (It is worth emphasising that all areas were down compared to 2019 because the pandemic weakened economic activity across the board.)</p>
<p><strong>The zoomshock and retail/entertainment activity</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graph showing retail and entertainment activity by area in London" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381964/original/file-20210202-15-h1g69b.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=542&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/bir/birmec/20-31.html">Matheson/De Fraja/Rockey. Change in retail and hospitality from Google Trends COVID-19 Community Mobility Reports</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Winners and losers</h2>
<p>This is not just a London phenomenon. In Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow and other UK cities, our research shows working from home has led to a shift away from city centres into the suburbs. Areas in which many commuters work, such as central Manchester, will lose out, while areas in which many commuters live, such as East Dunbartonshire on the northern outskirts of Glasgow, will win.</p>
<p><strong>The effect in England and Wales</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing which areas in England will win and lose from remote working" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381968/original/file-20210202-15-932htt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/bir/birmec/20-31.html">Matheson/De Fraja/Rockey</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>The effect in Scotland</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing which areas in Scotland will win and lose from remote working" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=730&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381969/original/file-20210202-17-1pf52xb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/bir/birmec/20-31.html">Matheson/De Fraja/Rockey</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Clearly, the zoomshock is leading to a redistribution of activities from urban city centres to residential suburbs. But a second, more subtle, conclusion is that there is substantial variation across even adjacent neighbourhoods. This is driven by local geographic clustering in job type by neighbourhood and which jobs can be done at home. </p>
<p>As you can see from the next graph, which plots a neighbourhood’s proportion of residents who can work at home against its score on the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/english-indices-of-deprivation-2019">multiple index of deprivation</a>, it is broadly the case that wealthier neighbourhoods have more potential remote workers. If working from home becomes the new normal, many restaurants, cafes, gyms and other locally consumed services will migrate away from city centres towards these neighbourhoods.</p>
<p><strong>Remote working by neighbourhood deprivation</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graph showing remote working by neighbourhood, explained in previous paragraph." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381970/original/file-20210202-21-4tskb0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/bir/birmec/20-31.html">Matheson/De Fraja/Rockey</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is likely to make these wealthier neighbourhoods even more desirable places to live, giving them better amenities compared to more deprived neighbourhoods than they have already. In other words, the inequalities between different neighbourhoods are liable to become worse as a result of the zoomshock. </p>
<h2>Implications for recovery</h2>
<p>Many workers will probably return to the office once the COVID-19 crisis is over, but it is likely they will not want to be there as many days as before. If half of the workers in a city centre work from home only two days a week, that is a 20% decrease in potential demand for the surrounding local services. </p>
<p>The demand will not necessarily be lost, but just reallocated to the neighbourhoods where these workers live. Government policies to help the economy recover have to reflect this reality. Allocating scarce resources to support businesses in neighbourhoods experiencing a negative zoomshock may be in vain – businesses should be encouraged to follow the demand. This underscores the importance of monitoring how remote working develops once the public health crisis begins to subside. </p>
<p>To end on a positive, according to our model, more neighbourhoods win than lose from the zoomshock. This is because densely concentrated office work in urban centres is spread across a number of less dense residential neighbourhoods. In this way the zoomshock introduces challenges for how we use urban centres, but also opportunities for a new way to think about life in our suburbs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154418/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) under the UKRI Covid-19 rapid response research call. Project title “The geography of post COVID-19 shutdown recovery risk in UK economic activity. Implications for recovery inequality and targeted stimulus”. Grant reference ES/V004913/1.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research by Gianni De Fraja is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) under the UKRI Covid-19 rapid response research call. Project title “The geography of post COVID-19 shutdown recovery risk in UK economic activity. Implications for recovery inequality and targeted stimulus”. Grant reference ES/V004913/1.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Rockey is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) under the UKRI Covid-19 rapid response research call. Project title “The geography of post COVID-19 shutdown recovery risk in UK economic activity. Implications for recovery inequality and targeted stimulus”. Grant reference ES/V004913/1.</span></em></p>A new economic model of how remote working is developing reveals some interesting results.Jesse Matheson, Senior lecturer, University of SheffieldGianni De Fraja, Professor of Economics, University of NottinghamJames Rockey, Senior lecturer, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1212222020-05-03T15:26:39Z2020-05-03T15:26:39ZDigital platforms alone don’t bridge youth divides<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318671/original/file-20200304-66069-1l362jt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C956%2C5906%2C3127&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Technology offers youth new tools -- but what such tools can help young people achieve depends on what they already know and larger contexts. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s taken for granted in many if not most school environments today that digital technology should be integrated throughout the curriculum to enhance <a href="https://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/Portals/elearning/docs/ICT%20Standards.pdf">not only communication and creativity but also equal access to resources and opportunities</a>. </p>
<p>Digital skills are considered critical for youth navigating the world — and for gaining mobility. Mobility is understood to mean both the nimbleness to communicate and enter into cross-cultural forums or dialogues (into new kinds of cultural “spaces” through internet platforms or digital technologies) and the capacity to move across socio-economical and cultural groups in everyday life. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318652/original/file-20200304-66089-of8cof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318652/original/file-20200304-66089-of8cof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318652/original/file-20200304-66089-of8cof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318652/original/file-20200304-66089-of8cof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318652/original/file-20200304-66089-of8cof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318652/original/file-20200304-66089-of8cof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318652/original/file-20200304-66089-of8cof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318652/original/file-20200304-66089-of8cof.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young person’s representation of their digital day.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While it’s critical for literacy educators to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1717">support student inquiry through digital media</a>, is it the case that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120110424816">because young generations grew up as “digital natives”</a> the tools of technology are inherently preferable today for fostering creativity? And when digital technologies foster mobility into new spaces, how do youth experience this? </p>
<p>As researchers who study what it means to be creative and literate today, we wanted to explore these questions and to gain insight into how young people think about digital media and their young digital lives. </p>
<h2>Scotland, Canada youth</h2>
<p>Diane was researching in Hamilton, west of Toronto, near the U.S. border. Hamilton has a population of <a href="https://www.hamilton.ca/sites/default/files/media/browser/2017-02-09/2016-census-population-dwelling-hamilton-census-tracts-1.pdf">more than 500,000</a> and has a long history with the steel industry. Mia was researching in Glasgow, Scotland, which has a <a href="https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/files/statistics/council-area-data-sheets/glasgow-city-council-profile.html">similar-sized population</a> and has an even longer history of industry in shipbuilding. </p>
<p>Both cities have seen <a href="https://www.thespec.com/news-story/2234571-hamilton-s-steel-industry-from-birth-to-boom-and-beyond/">dramatic shifts in their labour markets</a> and <a href="https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13130543.background-when-clyde-shipbuilding-was-the-envy-of-the-world/">economies due to the demise of their historic industries</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318410/original/file-20200303-66099-wcfejf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C19%2C1842%2C1003&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318410/original/file-20200303-66099-wcfejf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C19%2C1842%2C1003&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318410/original/file-20200303-66099-wcfejf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318410/original/file-20200303-66099-wcfejf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318410/original/file-20200303-66099-wcfejf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318410/original/file-20200303-66099-wcfejf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318410/original/file-20200303-66099-wcfejf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318410/original/file-20200303-66099-wcfejf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Youth Mobilities in Public and Digital Spaces group, Glasgow, Scotland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Mia Perry)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Through our collaborative project, <a href="https://yomo2017.wordpress.com/">Youth Mobilities in Public and Digital Spaces (YOMO)</a>, we brought together artists, youth, research assistants and community partners in the two different cities to form comparative research cohorts. </p>
<p>We concluded that when young people opt for screens in the home, on the bus or secretly under the desk at school, it’s almost entirely due to the options of engagement at their disposal. And we found that digital platforms <a href="https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/reframing-the-digital-in-literacy(08134038-9792-49ef-a622-8447ecddefcb).html">don’t in themselves itself bridge geographical, socio-economic or cultural differences</a>. The way people navigate digital spaces — their experience of being online doing something — depends on their experiences, their geographical locations or contexts and their preferred ways of expressing themselves.</p>
<h2>Young digital lives</h2>
<p>Through <a href="https://doi.org/10.26522/ssj.v13i1.1926">collaboration with artists and young people</a>, we hoped to develop a research approach that was less predictable but participatory, and would allow us to gain new insights into young people’s digital lives. </p>
<p>Diane consulted with the public library of Hamilton, the <a href="http://www.sprc.hamilton.on.ca/">Social Planning Research Council</a>, local school boards, neighbourhood councils and a few guidance counsellors to recruit youth. The group met in the Red Hill library in the city’s east end. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318647/original/file-20200304-66052-n5fakf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318647/original/file-20200304-66052-n5fakf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318647/original/file-20200304-66052-n5fakf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318647/original/file-20200304-66052-n5fakf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318647/original/file-20200304-66052-n5fakf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318647/original/file-20200304-66052-n5fakf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318647/original/file-20200304-66052-n5fakf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Youth Mobilities in Public and Digital Spaces group, Hamilton, Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Diane Collier)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Glasgow, Mia worked with a neighbourhood board and the <a href="https://www.cca-glasgow.com/programme">Centre for Contemporary Arts</a> and established a group that met in the Garnethill neighbourhood. The groups, which met once a week for two to three months, were socio-economically diverse and a portion of the young people were planning for university. </p>
<h2>Artists designed sessions</h2>
<p>We talked to the artists about concepts that we thought were important to digital lives (such as space, social media, preferred modes and tools and feelings of ownership) but we also gave the artists the freedom to get to know the young people and to design their own sessions. Rather than focus on research questions, as we were, the artists honed in on artistic production. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319643/original/file-20200310-61148-17j30ls.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319643/original/file-20200310-61148-17j30ls.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319643/original/file-20200310-61148-17j30ls.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319643/original/file-20200310-61148-17j30ls.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319643/original/file-20200310-61148-17j30ls.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319643/original/file-20200310-61148-17j30ls.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319643/original/file-20200310-61148-17j30ls.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319643/original/file-20200310-61148-17j30ls.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A youth moulds clay icons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Mia Perry)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We explored with young people their digital lives, the phones and laptops they used to communicate and the kinds of activities they engaged in. We asked the young people to interview friends about their digital lives — for example, what digital spaces felt familiar and comfortable — and to rate their online use from high to low. Leaders showed youth how to collect research data such as through collecting artefacts or doing interviews and youth had time and space to analyze data. </p>
<p>The visual artist in Hamilton led the youth to experiment with digital tools like <a href="https://theconversation.com/ive-always-wondered-why-is-a-green-screen-green-92989">green screens</a> and 3D printers, and to create personal and group collages with arts materials and with digital tools. The sculptor in Glasgow encouraged three-dimensional representation. The young people in both sites made things like plasticine worlds and plaster hands, cut-out collages and maps, and used digital tools to develop these creations further. </p>
<h2>Youth spaces</h2>
<p>We learned that this kind of work is difficult. We learned that some of our pre-formed questions were ill conceived, such as: What kind of digital space do you think is yours?</p>
<p>Youth didn’t think of spaces (or apps or tools) as digital or otherwise. Many did not separate online and offline space. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318429/original/file-20200303-66056-152z9jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318429/original/file-20200303-66056-152z9jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318429/original/file-20200303-66056-152z9jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318429/original/file-20200303-66056-152z9jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318429/original/file-20200303-66056-152z9jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318429/original/file-20200303-66056-152z9jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318429/original/file-20200303-66056-152z9jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318429/original/file-20200303-66056-152z9jc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hamilton youth with the YOMO project in a video lab.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Diane Collier)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, when youth talked about spaces they felt were theirs, one person did say his phone — the only place he could be alone. But youth also talked about watching YouTube in their room, on their bed or with a friend. In other words, they conceived of the activities of being somewhere in a particular place with digital media as related or entwined. </p>
<p>Young people were not discriminatory against non-digital stuff. And the young people showed us this regardless of where they were, their ages or their backgrounds. The screens were often left untouched, and youth chose art materials. </p>
<h2>Creating options</h2>
<p>We need to spend as much time considering the options and choices for engagement, learning, making, interacting and playing, as we do considering what can be done with digital space for learning. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318427/original/file-20200303-66064-1a0o51r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318427/original/file-20200303-66064-1a0o51r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318427/original/file-20200303-66064-1a0o51r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318427/original/file-20200303-66064-1a0o51r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318427/original/file-20200303-66064-1a0o51r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=363&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318427/original/file-20200303-66064-1a0o51r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318427/original/file-20200303-66064-1a0o51r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318427/original/file-20200303-66064-1a0o51r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=456&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Youth experimented with paints, pasticene, sculpting and a wide variety of digital media.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Diane Collier)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Digital education is not a tool for the better delivery of pre-existing knowledge, skills or ways of reading and interacting with the world. </p>
<p>Even in our local groups, communication was challenging. Everyone had a specific and narrow preference for the platforms they used to communicate, text or talk. Each person had a set range of digital spaces where they explored and (sometimes) were expert. Just reminding the group about meetings required a collage of tailored approaches. </p>
<p>Engaging with digital tools and spaces doesn’t in and of itself bridge cultures and geographies. Such engagement serves as a new type of playground where young learn how to interact for particular and diverse objectives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121222/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diane R. Collier receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mia Perry receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>Society needs to spend as much time considering youth options for creating as we we do considering what can happen with digital learning, finds a study in Hamilton, Canada and Glasgow, Scotland.Diane R. Collier, Associate professor, Department of Educational Studies, Brock UniversityMia Perry, Senior Lecturer, Education, Arts, Literacies, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.