After 30 years of Cop, our ex-environment editor is now optimistic

The global hunger for change - evident as early as the Rio Earth summit in 1992 - is now insatiable

In September 2006, shortly before the annual UN climate talks to be held that year in Nairobi, Kenya, I looked for hope amid the predictions of ecological collapse and the total failure of countries to act on emissions. It was hard going. The best I could manage was to argue that political, social and technological awareness of the climate crisis was growing and starting to translate into action. It was now a race between new ideas and political realities.

A personal revolution was taking place, I wrote. See how far we have [all] come in a generation ... Have you thought about installing solar panels or bought renewable energy? Have you chosen not to take a plane or bought a less powerful car? Have you voted for a political party or an individual because of their record on the environment? Have you tried to recycle more? Have you linked heatwaves and hurricanes with climate change, or wondered what kind of physical world your children will inhabit?"