LA CoMotion’s aim is simple: to look at the future of urban mobility with a perspective shaped by being in Los Angeles. And while this city of freeways usually gets a bad rap on the mobility front, at this year’s event – which concluded at the weekend – much of the talk was about how LA is spending big to change that reputation. Its sharp-suited mayor, Eric Garcetti, said he wants this to be a “city that tries not to say no” but instead opens up to mobility players working in “the age of acceleration”, where ideas get turned into reality ever faster. So that’s why there are electric ride-share scooters all over the city, the LAPD now chases robbers on Bosch e-bikes and plans are in place for 15 new rail and rapid-transit lines. By the time the Olympics come to town in 2028, LA will be like Copenhagen but with sunshine – well, that’s the vibe. For now, when you look at your travel app and see that the journey from your hotel to LA CoMotion will take 75 minutes on public transport but 30 minutes in an Uber, you take the car.

This week the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) will release its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin in Geneva. The report will provide an update on the average yearly concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases present in the atmosphere. Professor Pavel Kabat, WMO chief scientist and research director, and Dr Oksana Tarasova, chief of the Atmospheric Environment Research Division, are scheduled to deliver an address that is unlikely to provide a sunny outlook. As wildfires unprecedented in scale continue to rage across California, research scientists are warning that the smoke from such outbreaks significantly adds to the build-up of greenhouse gases. Fingers crossed that alongside the bad news, the latest bulletin also contains actionable strategies.