he coronavirus crisis has forced a year’s postponement of the next round of vital UN climate talks, called Cop26, which were scheduled to take place this week in Glasgow. But the pandemic has not diminished the urgency of the climate crisis, and despite the year’s delay, governments have continued to work round the clock on forging a new UN-brokered deal in the hope of putting the world on track to meet the Paris agreement. For John Murton, the UK’s Cop26 envoy, the global lockdowns and travel restrictions this year have meant an abrupt end to a punishing schedule of long-haul flights and in-depth meetings with his counterparts, from China to Chile. Instead, he is confined to his home office but continues to meet top-level officials on video calls. “This means I can trade the 6.56 to Charing Cross for a story with my two-year-old, Joey,” he told the Guardian. “Harry and the Dinosaurs is the current favourite. If the weather is nice we go for a short stroll to get some fresh air before I knuckle down.” His days can now encompass breakfast in Seoul, Berlin for lunch and New York for dinner, as he schedules meetings to fit in with his counterparts’ time zones. Overnight red-eye flights and weary hours in airport lounges may be banished, but they have been replaced with “virtual jet lag” as he toggles between discussing various countries’ needs and aims, from high-emitting major economies to small island states fearful for their very existence. Murton has a close understanding of the issues many developing countries face: he has worked extensively in Africa since researching his PhD in Kenya about 25 years ago, most recently as UK ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and as deputy high commissioner in Nairobi. “I personally think my experience in Africa helps,” he said. “People want to have access to electricity, transport and so on. The west has to help the poor to enjoy the fruits of economic development [while avoiding climate change]. You have to find ways.” He has also served in Japan and at Nato headquarters. The envoy is one of a tight-knit team of UK officials leading the talks, under Alok Sharma, the UK’s business secretary and president of Cop26. The 190-strong Cop26 unit sits within the Cabinet Office, with close links to 10 Downing Street and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and with the UK’s global network of hundreds of ambassadors and business advocates, all of whom have taken on a focus on the climate as the UK prepares for what will be its first major outing on the world stage after Brexit. The UK will also hold the rotating presidency of the G7 group of industrialised countries next year, and is expected to make climate a key focus there in preparation for Cop26. The prime minister, Boris Johnson, will convene, alongside UN secretary-general António Guterres, a separate preparatory meeting of world leaders this December: the virtual “climate ambition summit” will mark five years since the Paris agreement in 2015, and will be a key test of ambitions for Cop26. Murton’s colleagues include Mark Carney, the UN special envoy on climate action and finance, and former governor of the Bank of England; Archie Young, chief negotiator; Nigel Topping, the UK’s business champion; Nick Bridge, special representative for climate change at the Foreign Office. The all-male lineup, which also includes ministers Lord Zac Goldsmith and Lord Callanan, has drawn sharp criticism for its lack of diversity, though the government said women were represented at many other levels. The latest addition is Anne-Marie Trevelyan, former secretary of state for international development before her department was shut down, who was announced last week as the UK’s international champion for adaptation and resilience for Cop26. Online diplomacy has some clear advantages. As well as lower emissions from taking fewer flights, being online means Murton can communicate with several different countries in the course of a single day, instead of visiting each in turn. One surprising outcome is that developing countries are sometimes better able to participate in virtual forums than in the physical world. Many poor nations have high-speed internet connections and 4G or 5G networks, meaning ministers and officials can be reached easily, whereas poor nations sometimes struggle to send large teams to physical meetings. Twitter is also an unexpected boon. While some of the world’s major news outlets are often criticised for not giving the breakdown of the Earth’s climate the attention it deserves, social media is hot on the subject. Murton has found it provides a useful way for the UK’s global network of climate advocates to highlight their work. But nothing can make up for meeting people face-to-face and forging personal connections beyond the detail of countries’ official negotiating lines. “It’s about that time over a meal when you talk about something else, about people’s families or their pets, that you make real relationships,” said Murton. So far, the timetable for negotiations leading up to Cop26 has simply been put back by a year, but the strain will soon start to be felt when it comes to the details of the talks. Though the big decisions on what commitments countries will offer will be made by heads of government and high-ranking ministers, there are hundreds of pages of detailed text to be worked through as part of putting the Paris agreement into effect. Preparatory talks on those line by line technical issues, that would have taken place in May and September, have been postponed, and no formal negotiations have yet taken place. In the next few months, the UK and the UN will have to decide whether to wait for travel restrictions to be lifted or allow the formal negotiations to take place virtually. The UK view is that there is no appetite yet for formal negotiations to move online, but if lockdowns drag on in key countries that could yet change. In the meantime, Murton is “drinking a lot of tea and coffee” while he switches among video meetings, and working from home much of the time means he can help to look after his son during the intervals – which also means, every so often, he quietly switches off the camera for a nappy change.