The Secretary General of the UN has been pulling no punches at the COP 27 Climate Change Conference currently taking place at in Egypt.

Despite a glittering career in diplomacy, Antonio Guterres has clearly decided that when discussing the climate crisis, the time has come for some uncomfortable truths.

“Humanity has a choice,” he said. “Co-operate or perish.” 

The time had come he added for either “a climate solidarity pact or a collective suicide pact.”

Strong words indeed but just how much are they breaking through and really driving the step changes necessary to divert the impending climate emergency.

The truth of the matter is that despite the commitments of governments around the world to meet the targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement that would hopefully limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, we are seeing climate change accelerate before our very eyes.

And while predictions of where we are today may vary, the worst-case scenario suggests that carbon pollution may actually increase by 10% by the end of the decade and we could be heading to a global temperature increase of closer to 3% by the middle of the century.

There are a wide range of factors as to why we are not making the progress on emissions that we so desperately need but essentially it comes down to political will and that completely natural but incredibly unfortunate human characteristic – short-termism.

We are just not very good at looking beyond the here and now – something we experience every day when talking to people about investing – and our political systems are not fit for purpose at moments of global crisis when incredibly difficult and almost certainly unpopular decisions have to be made.

As world economies reel from a barrage of international crises, from Covid-19 to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we seem to have lost some of the critical political momentum, especially from the big emitters in the developed world, which is being translated into a real lack of urgency in tackling emissions. 

One only has to consider the fact that the British Prime Minister was not even planning to attend COP 27 to get a feel of where the climate crisis sits on the national agenda. 

But the fact that China has not attended COP 27 or that the government is making it more difficult, not easier, to establish solar farms for instance, does not change a thing. 

Climate change is happening, and the long-term consequences will be catastrophic unless we take the necessary action today. 

So if we are going to hit our national and global emissions goals then we must overcome an even greater threat than emissions and that is one of apathy.

The general cynicism around the climate debate and the power of vested interests must not derail us from taking personal responsibility for tackling climate change.

Ultimately it is our own behaviour that can make a real difference in this fight in terms of how we live our own lives and the changes we are prepared to make.

Over the past three years Penney Financial Partners has been on its own journey to become a carbon neutral business and I can say with all honesty it has not been an easy one.

During that time we have slowly but surely evolved our business model through investing in technology and embracing renewable opportunities, but we have only really tweaked the dial in terms of reducing our emissions.

At present we are committed to offsetting our carbon emissions with a longer-term vision of becoming a net zero business with no need to offset but this will entail an ongoing evolution in terms of how we interact with our clients and that is not a process that can or will happen overnight.

Becoming a carbon neutral business also comes at a cost and so in times of economic challenge as we are seeing today, it is understandable that this kind of commitment becomes a nice to have rather than an imperative.

But from our perspective, becoming a carbon neutral business and investing in the survival of the planet is not discretionary. Global warming is not somebody else’s problem and a generation down the line, we want to be able to look our children in the eye and know that we made a difference.

It takes courage for any of us to make the necessary changes to our lives in the face of such a seemingly insurmountable problem and yet we must – and be increasingly vocal about what we are doing and why so that others feel empowered to embark on a more sustainable future.

Guterres also said that we are currently on “the highway to climate hell – with our foot still on the accelerator”. It won’t be easy but by taking responsibility for ourselves and by taking the necessary if difficult steps, we may just have enough time to apply the brake.