It is probably too far into January to wish readers a Happy new Year, but this week’s change at the top of the American governmental system promises the start of something happier for social equity within the USA and the global environment. Joe Biden’s accession speech referenced the racial inequality in America and the existential risk of the climate crisis and America re-entering the Paris Climate Accord as a result of one of his first executive acts is very welcome news. The presence of a woman as Vice-President would be remarkable enough in itself, but Kamala Harris’s mixed heritage makes her truly exceptional within the nearly 100 Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the past two-and-a-quarter centuries. Biden’s speech also acknowledged the considerable difficulties which his administration will face, first in properly addressing the Covid-19 pandemic and secondly in navigating the deep political differences which will make his social and environmental agendas hard to achieve. Nevertheless, for now at least there is cause for optimism.

Contrast that with the mixed signals on this side of the Atlantic from recent government actions. Despite a manifesto pledge to end plastic waste exports (and the fact that 85% of citizens polled in 2019 were in favour of the UK doing so) there are fears that this may yet happen as EU law has not been transposed. On top of that, the UK Government is also facing accusations of failing to uphold environmental, social and animal welfare standards in its approach to agri-food imports. An amendment proposed in the House of Lords was rejected by a Commons vote and the Government’s position seems to amount to little more than “we won’t do it, so we don’t need to legislate – trust us”, which rather begs the question, if they’re really not going to do it, what’s stopping them from legislating? On top of that there are more mixed signals, this time on carbon. The fact that the previous Busines Secretary, Alok Sharma, left his post to focus full-time on the delayed COP26 looked like a possible sign of a government taking the climate crisis seriously. Since then, despite government funding of £8m (a much smaller number than it sounds, in this context) for a net-zero industrial cluster, it has chosen not to intervene in plans for a new coal mine in Cumbria. Sharma’s replacement, Kwasi Kwarteng, couldn’t avoid the hypocrisy, but played it down to an extraordinary extent by saying “There is a slight tension between the decision to open the mine and our avowed intention to take coal off the gas grid”. Slight tension? On the positive side, the Defra minister has stated that embedded carbon in imports could be included in future emissions targets (notwithstanding that the UK is set to miss the next two carbon budgets). Let’s hope these words prove to be more reliable.

Where the Government has some way to go if it is to match rhetoric with action, at least some businesses are doing a better job of reflecting the urgency of the climate and pollution crises and the public’s desire to see improvements. The issue of plastics has slipped down the priority list during the pandemic, but it will certainly come back. Tennents and Heinz both removing plastic packaging from cans, Beefeater is removing plastics from bottles and Tesco has announced that it has removed 1 billion pieces of plastic packaging. On the carbon front, Leon is introducing carbon-neutral burgers and fries. More broadly, Garnier is introducing digital sustainability labelling and Apple is linking executive pay to performance on ESG targets. Perhaps the Government should take note…