Looking back over the period since the pandemic began, possibly one of the most iconic memories for me was clear blue skies with no aircraft trails to be seen anywhere.
In fact, it got to the stage, with aeroplanes grounded across the world, that seeing a long white line moving across the sky – usually a cargo plane – became a rare phenomenon rather than an everyday occurrence.
The fact that people were not travelling abroad and staying at home within their own countries meant that the environment improved across the World. There were news reports about smog disappearing in some the World’s most polluted cities and fish returning to rivers and waterways such as the canals of Venice.
Given this, there was hope that the world may have turned an unexpected corner on climate change with one academic journal suggesting that global carbon dioxide emissions had fallen by 17% in April 2020 as compared to the previous year.
Unfortunately, as economic activity has started again, that drop has been completed reversed with a report published this week from the Global Carbon Project showing that emissions from gas and coal have increased more in 2021 than they decreased in 2020.
This suggests that despite promises by politicians around the World to build back better, we are back to the same crisis situation on the environment that we had prior to the world shutting down last year and, more worryingly, the rush to make up for the lost economic activity has actually worsened the situation over greenhouse emissions.
This cannot be allowed to continue and whilst it is understandable that politicians are focusing on ensuring that industries return to creating jobs and prosperity, this should not be at the cost of the future of the planet especially given everything we have been through over the last 20 months.
Obviously, there has been a lot of talk at COP26 climate change conference about how this can be changed for the better and now that the leaders of the world have departed Glasgow, the real work starts in getting agreements that will make a difference in the long term.
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At the heart of any recovery must be the realisation that there must be an urgent transition away from a dependence on fossil fuels towards a net zero future by 2050 and this is not going to be easy to achieve despite the best intentions of politicians.
For example, here in Wales we have seen a political row break out over the cancelling of a by-pass project in Gwynedd at the same time that over a billion pounds will have been spent on extending a much-needed but high polluting dual carriageway across the top of the South Wales Valleys.
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Similarly, the Welsh Government has spent tens of millions of pounds in supporting Cardiff Airport as a magnet for tourism and international investment despite aviation being one of the fastest-growing sources of the greenhouse gas emissions driving global climate change.
In addition, there were calls, with the increase in prices, for energy subsidies to be given to Tata in Port Talbot which would be expected given that it is a major employer and contributor to the Welsh economy.
Yet, the steelmaker is estimated to be one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions in the 海角视频 with Wales producing 19% of all industrial carbon emissions in the 海角视频 despite having only 5% of the population.
All of this suggests that there are no easy solutions in the immediate future to balance economic growth verses tacking climate change and it could be argued if the latter is more important in the equation than the former, then there must be at least a consistent approach to policy.
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Nevertheless, there have been some positive developments in the last six months that do bode well for the future but is there anything else that could be done in the next few months in terms of economic development to ensure that we get business to contribute more to reducing carbon emissions and to promote a greener economy?
The first, and possible, simplest decision is for the Welsh Government to instruct its Development Bank of Wales to create a new green investment fund to support the growth of sustainable businesses.
If Wales is to become a leading nation in this sector and we are serious about being the best in the world at supporting such firms, then why not offer loans at 0% interest for all firms that apply and meet the criteria of such a fund.
I know such a proposal would is anathema to the philosophy of those running the development bank but at this critical time, it would be the right thing to do. It would ensure that we not only get cheap finance to help indigenous Welsh firms in this sector to grow but would also attract other green companies to relocate here to Wales.
The Welsh Government could also work with the city and growth deals to ensure that some of the massive amounts of funding that has been received is focused towards transforming the SME sector in Wales.
To date, much of the focus of COP 26 has been about changing the behaviour of large firms and yet it is smaller firms that make up the vast majority of businesses in Wales and are the largest employers. However, I am sure that the majority of entrepreneurs - many of whom simply are too busy running their businesses - would be willing to get involved in anything that would make their businesses greener and more productive over time.
I am sure there are many other ways to ensure that the focus of the Welsh business sector is on achieving net zero over the next 30 years, but it is important that we start the conversation with the business community now and ensure that, despite everything else that is going on the world, that Wales is one of the nations leading this transformational agenda.