On an unseasonably hot Melbourne spring day, tuned into the live stream, I watched on as landscape architect Kotchakorn Voraakhom took her seat at the table. On a screen above the heads of world leaders, the United Nations Global Climate Action Award winner loomed large. Featuring as part of Sir David Attenborough’s inspiring opening address for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), Voraakhom’s hopeful words rang true: “Can we fix the climate problem in one generation? My answer would be yes. We have to.”
In the lead-up to COP26, we saw the release of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Sixth Assessment Report. Providing a detailed regional assessment of climate change to inform risk assessment and adaptation, it constitutes “a code red for humanity.”1
COP26 was hosted by the
