As the climate crisis looms, more money is pouring into purported solutions. But such ambition, often from the private sector, is hampered by a lagging public sector, says Associate Professor Winston Chow of the Singapore Management University.
“The policy inertia that seems to have taken root — that has been the cause of what Greta Thunberg has said: ‘30 years of blah, blah, blah.’ The ‘blah, blah, blah’ has to stop,” says Chow.
However, following last month’s conclusion of the 2021 United Nations climate change conference — otherwise known as the COP26 summit, governments may soon get serious about tackling emissions, he adds. “I’m very heartened. I would think that after some of the fallout from Glasgow, this inertia will be overcome — sooner, definitely, than later.”