Hypocrisy. HyCOPrisy.

COP26 has been a social media smash hit and all this mainstream chatter has brought climate change crashing into the echo chambers of social media users everywhere. A global reach and global audience to match the enormity of the challenge we face, and to match the scale of the inconvenient truth being passed from generation-to-generation.  

Throughout COP26 many have watched in dismay as leaders fail to show leadership in favour of kicking the can down the road with promises to come back next year. And while some have erupted with anger at the hypocrisy on show, many avatars have remained tight-lipped, while their curators try to make sense of the challenge to come, or have been busy contemplating the missed opportunities and time wasted since 2015. Anyone remember COP21 in Paris? When the goal was to limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius. This felt achievable back then, but six years later pretending this still remains on target only breeds further complacency.

In my own online echo chamber algorithms serve me up a daily dose of planning and design content whether satirical (@shitplanning), aspirational (dezeen) or insightful (Fred Kent). The first two weeks of November 2021 also served up astonishing levels of hyperbole from organisations and corporate entities wanting to appear ‘on brand’ with COP26. Hypocrisy? Perhaps. A statement of intent? Let’s hope so.

I have first hand experience of an organisation that having on one hand declared a climate emergency, is simultaneously proposing to build a new multi-story car park in the heart of the city centre as part of Covid-19 recovery plans; where the expectation is that all new housing comes with a minimum 200% parking ratio; where new residential streets are designed to the specification of bin lorries; where street trees are removed from proposed designs over concerns over the cost of maintenance; where concerns over single aspect homes are met with a shrug of the shoulders; and where 1000s of new homes are currently being built with gas-fired boilers.

The courage to question is crucial to changing the status quo, but lone voices are systematically weak, easy to placate or ignore, and often dismissed as mavericks. For this reason I took great heart from attending the inaugural coming together of @CommonGood in Manchester this month. A movement founded on the values of collective action and bringing about positive change through wider participation in the creation and adaptation of places.

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