The COP27 conference was made a miserable affair by its dreadful architecture as much as the disheartening tenor of the discussions and debates, writes Smith Mordak.

No! I don't want to read another opinion piece on how COP27 was a disappointment and "we must" do better. I know. We all know. Attending COP27 was a deeply depressing experience. I heard nothing I hadn't heard a million times before and even though I'd have been drunk under the table if I'd taken a sip every time someone said "breakthrough", I heard nothing of any actual breakthroughs.
I'm not saying that no action on climate change is happening, or that there isn't powerful thinking opening up universes of possibilities for better futures going on all around us ? there are! But until these international forums give themselves permission to consider transformative social and economic policy, we're not going to get anywhere. I'd have been drunk under the table if I'd taken a sip every time someone said "breakthrough"
One anecdote to make this point if you'll bear with me: at a panel in the Buildings Pavilion, one of the attendees asked for ideas from the panel for retrofitting the mobile homes of low-income residents in the US.
The panel bent over backwards to try to address this within their remits. Their frankly preposterous answers included things like creating district-wide projects that might convince investors that they can clinch a worthwhile profit from the scale of the wor...