Opinion: After Glasgow, It’s Time to Reimagine Global Climate Governance

When the second week of the Glasgow Climate Conference (COP26) started a week ago, I stayed up until 3 a.m. Beijing time to watch a side event live. This was “Reimagining Climate Governance,” and I’m a big fan of the panel speaker Kim Stanley Robinson who writes best-selling climate fiction. But in the end, it was the questions from the floor, not the panel discussion, that stayed with me. One was more of a statement on climate justice, with the speaker saying he thought the negotiating venue was disconnected from the reality of millions of frontline communities in developing countries that are suffering from climate disaster. The other asked, “Can you imagine a new social contract on climate governance, and what do you imagine would be the process leading to that?” The comments — from veteran negotiator and science fiction writer alike — sounded like prayers to an oracle, a touch of desperation blended with hope. Now that COP26 has ended with the “Glasgow Climate Pact”, I wonder what delegates are going home with, and what they might pray for.