climate laggard

Australia has joined those countries labelled ‘climate laggards’ in the last couple of years.  It seems that climate laggard has followed in the wake of technology laggard, a popular phrase of five years ago for those businesses and organisations that refused to keep up with the changes brought about by the IT revolution.

 Laggard is word that dates back to the early 1700s and means someone who lingers or delays behind others, usually out of reluctance to take part.  The English language gained many words from the French after the Norman Conquest, and among them was a set of words ending in –ard, words like coward, bastard, placard.  English speakers became so comfortable with the form of these words that they hived off the –ard ending and began combining it with English words. Laggard, derived from the verb to lag and the new –ard ending, is one of these, taking form in the early 1700s.

 The latest politician to decry Australia’s climate laggardliness is Boris Johnson, spurred on by British farmers who don’t want to sign up to a trade deal where they have to try to save the planet whereas their Australian counterparts can do whatever they please, and thus gain an advantage.