Engage for Change Series: Hugh Montgomery on breaking the cycle of climate inaction

“We’re out of time if we don’t act immediately”, warns Hugh Montgomery. Climate change is accelerating, and we are dangerously close to crossing the 14 tipping points—irreversible thresholds that would trigger catastrophic and permanent changes to our planet.

Hugh illustrates the immense scale of the challenge: “Even if we thought we could hit one and a half degrees [of warming], even if we thought that was safe—which it isn’t—we would need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by around 12% per year, every year, for the next five years. Within the next 60 months, we’d need to cut emissions by 50%. And even that’s not enough.” 

The urgency for immediate, large-scale, transformative action has never been greater. Yet, progress remains frustratingly slow. So, what’s stopping us from taking action?

Barriers to progress

Hugh identifies several barriers that are slowing the pace of climate action, ranging from systemic challenges to deeply ingrained human behaviours:

1. Lack of media coverage 

Hugh criticises the media for failing to deliver continuous messaging about the scale and urgency of the climate crisis. 

“There's no such thing as news. There's only stories. So unless there's a story about climate change, for example, the recent floods in Valencia, it isn't covered.”

As a result, many are unaware of the catastrophic effects of climate change, which are happening right now, all over the world. This issue is compounded by the fact that many people, especially the younger generation, don’t access reliable news sources. 

“Over 80% of people under 30 get all of their news from TikTok now. And that might be feeding them some random algorithm. Most people don’t read a national newspaper. If all you do is listen to a pop radio station, you won’t hear about climate change at all.”

2. Political paralysis 

Climate action has been politicised, often dismissed as a “left-wing agenda.” According to Hugh, this has led to inaction from leaders who refuse to acknowledge or address the problem. 

3. Lack of business leadership 

Businesses play a critical role in addressing the climate crisis, but many leaders don’t fully understand climate change. Instead of making sustainability a priority, they often delegate it to small teams or ESG specialists who don’t have the power to drive real change. 

4. Human psychology and behaviour 

Even when people understand the severity of the climate crisis, psychological barriers often get in the way of action. Hugh explains:

“Humans are very badly wired to weigh indeterminate personal medium-term risk against short-term pleasure.”

This is why it’s hard to convince people to change behaviour, like eating less meat or buying fewer new things. People also struggle with loss aversion, where the pain of giving something up outweighs the perceived benefits of gaining something new.

Societal norms also heavily influence and shape behaviour. As Hugh puts it: “We’re social beasts. We go with the crowd. Until we’ve reached a place where people are saying, ‘This is the new norm,’ we won’t get the floodgates opening.”

How can we overcome these barriers?

Despite these challenges, Hugh is optimistic that change is possible—if individuals take responsibility and act.

For too long, the world has been stuck in a cycle of inaction. As Hugh explains:

“Until recently, we haven’t had politicians who acted. As a result, we had businesses that would say, ‘We’re not going to lead because the politicians aren’t regulating to make it happen, and people won’t buy our products as it’d be more expensive.’ Then people say, ‘I can’t do anything because the politicians and businesses aren’t changing.’ And globally, governments say, ‘We can’t change as a government, because the government of India won’t change’, and then everyone stops doing things.”

This cycle needs to be broken, and Hugh believes it starts with individuals.

The power of individual action

Change begins with individuals taking small, sustainable steps. Actions like eating less meat, using public transport, or switching to renewable energy providers, might seem small, but when adopted on a large scale, can have a significant impact. 

When one person takes action, it also inspires others to do the same, creating a ripple effect: 

“Advertisers say that we each have seven people we can influence. So if we all made the sustainable changes we needed and encouraged seven people to do the same, by the time we get to the 12th cycle, 13 billion people will have changed, and there’s only 8 billion people on this planet.”

This doesn’t just impact individuals, it also influences businesses and governments to take action, creating the systemic change needed to address the climate crisis. 

Connecting problems to solutions 

Hugh stresses that it’s not enough to warn people about the dangers of climate change. To inspire action, people need clear and practical solutions.

“If we’re telling people that if we don’t act immediately we will die, then you’ve got to follow up saying, this is where this life raft is, this is what you need to do right now.”

At Cogo, this is exactly what we strive to do. We empower individuals by helping them understand their carbon footprint and providing practical, personalised recommendations on how they can reduce their impact in real-time. 

Are COP conferences effective at accelerating climate action?

Hugh Montgomery is sceptical about the role of COP in accelerating climate action. He argues that they can often be counterproductive, with vested interests stalling progress:

“We’ve now got almost more people who are oil industry and fossil fuel industry lobbyists at these things than we’ve got activists. We’ve got people who are running the conferences who are trying to do oil and gas deals.”

He criticises the conferences for failing to produce concrete actions or real commitments. 

“If you ever read the text, there’s no deals being done. There’s been an agreement that says, we will raise our ambition to x, or we will commit to trying harder towards y. But there’s never a deal that says we will do this by that date.”

Instead of relying on global agreements that often fail to deliver, Hugh advocates for a bottom-up approach fuelled by individual action and business leadership.

Be the change you want to see

Hugh’s message is clear: the solution to climate change starts with us. As consumers, our choices have power:

• Vote with your wallet: Choose banks and businesses that prioritise sustainability.
• Adopt sustainable practices: Reduce meat consumption, avoid fast fashion, and minimise travel emissions.
• Inspire others: Share your actions and influence those around you.

At Cogo, we’re here to guide you on this journey—helping you understand your impact and take the most impactful actions. Together we can create a more sustainable future.