Landmark Cops succeeded through leadership and hard graft – something the prime minister’s optimism has blinded him to
When the UK landed the Cop26 presidency two years ago, Boris Johnson sensed a huge opportunity to showcase the UK on the world stage. The conference fit his post-Brexit vision of a “global Britain”, free of the EU and still a player on the world stage.
He believed “Glasgow” would be remembered as a historic gathering, like the previous landmark climate summits in Kyoto and Paris. As recently as the end of September, Johnson told the UN general assembly in New York that the Glasgow summit should be a “turning point”. But then a week ago he began to scale down expectations, admitting success was “touch and go”.
Mujtaba Rahman is the managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group, a political risk research and consulting firm
