Will this year’s global climate gathering in Egypt result in action? Jonathan Hall, Head of the Sustainable Transformation Practice, assesses the outcome and the impact of evolving public opinion on businesses.

Going into COP27, the focus was on “keeping 1.5 alive”, adaptation, loss and damage, and the role of finance. That’s an enormous to do list and, with the dust still settling on Sharm el-Sheikh, it may be some time before we know exactly what has really been achieved.

Since COP 26 last year, much has changed geopolitically. The war in Ukraine has dramatically changed the global energy context, while the climate collaboration between China and the US announced in the UK has faltered.

On the positive side, the US has introduced the world’s largest package of decarbonisation investment – the Inflation Reduction Act – and election results in Australia and Brazil have been welcomed. Brazil’s president-elect Lula got the rockstar treatment at COP 27.