Glasgow is ecological ground zero right now, with the eyes and ears of the globe trained on the city as world leaders – or, to be more precise, their political negotiators – attempt to thrash out a deal that might mean there’s still a world for our great-grandchildren.

Pathway to Paris
Theatre Royal, Glasgow

Glasgow is ecological ground zero right now, with the eyes and ears of the globe trained on the city as world leaders – or, to be more precise, their political negotiators – attempt to thrash out a deal that might mean there’s still a world for our great-grandchildren. Living here, though, I feel strangely disconnected from COP26: it’s all taking place a 20-minute walk from my house, but when I go there I find myself at a new city within my city – a tented city that’s now the (temporary) province of the United Nations. And it’s clearly out of bounds: the entire area is fenced off, and I’ve never seen so many security staff or checkpoints (you have to be a delegate, or working for COP, to get inside).

So the first joy about “Pathway to Paris” (31 October) was that it brought the people of Glasgow into the frame of COP – and how. An evening of words and music around climate change, it was a place for all-comers, and right in the heart of the city. It seemed an odd title – the Paris agreement was in 2015, so surely we’re now on the pathway from Paris, not towards it? Turns out though that the idea was launched seven years ago in the run-up to Paris, the brainchild of Jesse Paris Smith and Rebecca Foon, and since then they’ve held a COP concert at every conference venue.

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