We’ve had information campaigns on Brexit and Covid. What about the climate? | George Marshall

In the runup to Cop26, public knowledge about the crisis is shallow, with few understanding the scale of the threat

One of the key lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic is that strong policies require strong public engagement: people needed to understand the nature of the virus before they would tolerate constraints on their lives or provide the government with a mandate for action.

Yet the world faces another major problem that is already transforming economies, infrastructure and way of life: the climate crisis. And in this case, governments have miserably failed to inform or consult their citizens. Not one of the highest-polluting nations attending Joe Biden's climate summit last week has a coherent strategy or dedicated national budget for public engagement.