There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.
When it comes to action on climate change, that saying feels resonant to me right now.
The issue seems to be a part of ordinary conversations in a way that it just wasn’t even months ago.
People in the developed world who live carbon intensive lives are really starting to worry about whether their children and grandchildren are going to be okay.
What will happen to our food and water security? Our low lying cities? The value of our properties? Our economies?
Citizens of the nations most vulnerable to the effects of our warming planet are already getting to know the answer to those questions.
It is now also becoming crystal clear that getting the world to essentially decarbonise by 2050 as required by the Paris Climate Agreement will require the re-wiring of our economies and wholesale changes around what we consume, how we consume it, what we grow, what we manufacture, how we build and how we travel.
Momentum, pressure and an acceptance of the sacrifices relating these shifts seems to be building in equal measure, demonstrated on Friday by the four million people who took to the streets in protest.
Amid this growing alarm, world leaders gathered in New York for the UN climate action summit.
The UN climate action summit was an example of progress – dull, grinding, messy, imperfect progress.
As if to drive home the effect of Friday’s protest, they were faced with Greta Thunberg’s angry, emotional speech about the failure of leaders to act.
I had mixed feelings about this moment.
On the one hand the 16 – year-old activist is absolutely right.
The world is not currently on track to hit the Paris climate targets.
And scientists tell us that not doing so could have irreversible, catastrophic consequences for our planet (and us).
She is correct, in my view, that there has been an unforgivable lack of progress on an issue foretold by the best research more than three decades ago.
But while Greta’s speech will dominate the headlines, I don’t think we should forget that there was some real progress on Monday.
The UK and Germany, for example, announced huge investments in tackling climate change across the world.
An alliance of powerful investors committed to making sure their money would only go to net carbon neutral businesses by 2050.
In his closing remarks, the United Nations secretary general highlighted other achievements – 77 countries committed to net carbon neutrality by 2050, as did 10 regions and more than 100 cities.
And 130 banks, or one third of the global banking sector, pledged to align themselves with the Paris agreement targets.
The list went on.
It wasn’t perfect, and by his own admission, the secretary general admitted “we aren’t there yet”, not least because big polluters like America and Japan aren’t doing anywhere near enough.
But the UN climate action summit was an example of progress – dull , ****************
Meaningful collective action never happens in a flash, or because someone starts yelling.
The painstaking work of consensus building and change may not be on a scale commensurate with the magnitude of the problem, yet, but amid the protests and the Greta speech it might have been easy to ignore what actually has been achieved.
I think these things are worth highlighting so that we can all have a little hope alongside our growing fear.
Sky Views is a series of comment pieces by Sky News editors and correspondents, published every morning.
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