Why COP stopped making a difference

When the COP climate conference was held in Scotland five years ago, it was a who’s who of global politics and celebrity – from US President Joe Biden to actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

This year's event in Turkey is very different. Donald Trump was always going to give it a miss – but it’s more of a surprise not to see the likes of France’s Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz of Germany and even arch-climate campaigner, Canada’s Mark Carney.

In fact, prime minister Andy Burnham was the only G7 leader to attend. And even that was only for a few hours, as cost-of-living pragmatism overtakes climate crisis concerns.

Niall Paterson speaks to Sky’s science and technology editor Tom Clarke and asks if there are any reasons to be optimistic about what COP could still achieve.

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