COP26 has been a success in that it has got the issues at play beyond the bubble and in to wider public consciousness. That is priceless. Like many people, I couldn’t tell you where the last conference was, whose idea they were in the first place or what had previously been agreed. We all know about it now.

The infrastructure of Glasgow and the central belt has been able to deal with an international event, the police undertook their role with good humour and common sense, and the protestors protested in the way we would have liked them to, without getting up to any nonsense that would have detracted from the issues at hand. There have been no nasty incidents to reflect badly on people, and that is very much to the credit of all those involved.

I have been very impressed with Alok Sharma, who shouldered responsibility for the organisation of the event, and he made sure the discussions and negotiations were concentrated on the matters at hand and not himself or his Government. US envoy John Kerry has shown that the United States is engaged again, and we should all take confidence from that.

Progress has been made, but we know now that there is a rolling programme of improvements, and that whatever has not been covered on 2021 in Glasgow will be taken up again in 1922 in Egypt.

When Greta Thunberg gets home and has time to reflect on things, she will hopefully realise that “Blah, blah, blah” is not an accurate summary of what has taken place. This now is a lifetime’s work for all of us, including Greta, and we should look at things from that perspective.

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Victor Clements, Aberfeldy.

SIDE DEALS ARE TO BE WELCOMED

SCIENTISTS and economists who accept that the climate changes but resist global warming hysterics knew that Glasgow’s green jolly was in trouble when the UK Government and COP26 president Alok Sharma made ending the use of coal the event’s central target. When push came to shove China and India had to support the developing world’s need for cheap, reliable power.

As India’s Bhupender Yadav rightly said: “Developing countries have a right to their fair share of the global carbon budget and are entitled to the responsible use of fossil fuels within this scope. How can anyone expect them to make promises about phasing out coal?”. The UK’s position was unrealistic and in the end the US brokered a viable deal with China and India.

In spite of Mr Sharma’s tears and howls of protest from the usual suspects, COP26 wasn’t a failure. I thought side deals on methane, deforestation, electric cars and so on were very productive. Of course amid much good common sense Boris Johnson introduced a note of absurdity by claiming the talk-fest “marks the beginning of the end of climate change” but I doubt anyone was listening.

Dr John Cameron, St Andrews.

TAKING SOME BABY STEPS

BABY steps toward climate change. The world is not on target to keep to 1.5C or anywhere near it, and that is if every promise is kept, an unlikely scenario. A conference of mostly elderly men was never likely to look beyond their own short-term political interests, or invite Greta Thunberg to embarrass them with her withering scepticism.

Boris Johnson, the supposed COP 26 host, flew (yes, flew) hundreds of miles in the middle of the conference, to attend a men-only dinner of climate sceptical cronies. It also reminds us of certain correspondents to The Herald or opinionators like Kevin McKenna who repeatedly castigate Nicola Sturgeon, a Glasgow MSP and First Minister of Scotland, for having the temerity to attend a conference in Glasgow, and discuss issues raised with other participating people. She should presumably have stayed at home, knitting or washing dishes: curtains and mouth shut.

GR Weir, Ochiltree.

* APPARENTLY Nicola Sturgeon believes that Scotland hosting COP26 has strengthened the case for independence. What?

COP26 was held in the UK – and that's not mere semantics. It was in Glasgow because Glasgow is a UK city. Plus it was emphatically not hosted, run or organised by the Scottish administration but by the UK Government. Ms Sturgeon was simply a guest, politely invited. But kudos to her – her obsession with separatism, even at a forum dedicated to saving the planet from destruction, is unceasing.

Martin Redfern, Melrose.

WE MUST NOW HALT CAMBO

READERS might think that they have had an overdose of information since COP came to Glasgow.

I would like to share one short clip that seemed especially relevant when thinking about the costs involved in dealing with climate change.

The woman delegate from the small Caribbean island of Barbados (population less than 300,000, so bigger than Aberdeen but smaller than Edinburgh).

She stated, very movingly, that the world spent $25 trillion on the miracle cure of "quantitative easing" when the financial economy verged on collapse because of speculators in 2008. More recently, the world has managed to spend another $8 trillion since the Covid pandemic started.

So the money is available to do something about the climate emergency but our politicians do not understand it affects us all. We seem prepared to let them make our situation worse by letting the Cambo oilfield go ahead instead of showing the way to a better future by stopping new and unnecessary exploration for oil.

Norman Lockhart, Innerleithen.

FORBIDDEN SUBJECTS

DURING COP26 there were two forbidden subjects. Nuclear power and population control. A third might well have been the effect of our Sun on the climate.

The climate enthusiasts are selective about their so-called evidence. They have to be, because facts and true science destroy the myth they promote.

Malcolm Parkin, Kinross.

SCAPEGOATING THE RED DEER

I READ with interest Vicky Allan's feature on Neil McIntyre's book Chasing the Deer ("In defence of Monarch of the Glen", Herald Magazine, November 13.

The red deer is now regarded as a "tree-destroying pest". The only pest on Planet Earth is the animal at the top of the food chain, humankind. Scotland did not host COP because of the actions of the red deer, but due to the actions of the animal which has upset ecosystems until we have put every human on the planet in danger of flood, fire, war and pestilence, and ultimately our own extinction.

But hey, why take responsibility for our own actions when it's easier and more fun to blame another species?

Margaret Forbes, Kilmacolm.

WHEN PUBLIC TRANSPORT WORKED

CATRIONA Stewart rightly calls out for a joined-up public transport system as a prerequisite for Glasgow acquiring its green credentials ("Then or now? Attitudes to car-free life stuck on repeat", The Herald, November 12).

Most journalists working today are too young to remember the monthly Transcard which took commuters throughout the city throughout the 1970s and early 80s. There was an Inner Transcard covering as far as Dennistoun in the East and Hyndland in the West and an Outer Transcard covering Greater Glasgow including the suburbs. All public transport was covered: buses, trains, boats and subway.

Public transport was speedier (no footering to find the right change at bus stops; no queuing at train ticket machines), more flexible (easier for tourists; a weekly transcard was available), and more popular. It was a wonderful system; far too efficient and user-friendly to survive Margaret Thatcher's deregulation of the buses in the 80s.

If it was possible then, why is it impossible now?

Despite the green soundbites they make today, the Tories have always had contempt for public transport. In the 1960s they closed down the majority of the train lines in Scotland, including tunnels in Glasgow which today could be utilised to extend the subway if only the will was there.

Mary McCabe, Glasgow.

TIRED OF FLAWED PROTESTS

THE campaign group Tyred of SUVs deflated the tyres of some SUVs in the west end of Glasgow. Let’s hope none of the owners had an urgent hospital appointment or the need to visit a dying relative, or an important job interview.

Stuart Neville, Clydebank.

* I WONDER why the activists who were so against polluting SUVs in “rich” areas of Glasgow did not go the whole hog and attempt to let down the tyres of The Beast (3.7mpg) or the other real gas guzzlers in the US President’s procession to COP 26?

Could it be a reluctance to spend a night or two in the cells before a swift appearance in Glasgow Sheriff Court?

Keith Robertson, Kingussie.

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