Dear COP26 Leaders,
Welcome to Glasgow which is a fascinating city, and I hope that in amongst the various speeches, meetings and agreements you get a chance to explore all that the city has to offer. Keeping Covid safe of course!
I’m not sure what happened in the previous COP meetings, but it is becoming clear that whatever it was it is had very little impact, and Climate Change is now a crisis! It is time to take collective responsibility and make sure that our children and their children have a life that they can enjoy.
I am sure that there will be lots of meetings with thousands of overheads about the climate crisis but I would like to add a few pointers as to what I feel should come out of COP26.
First, be truthful and honest about where we are with climate change. Science has cut through the many years of political waffle and has given us a sound bedrock of knowledge. What is needed, is for you to translate the scientific findings into what it means and the actions that we are going to take to initiate change. I can appreciate that it is a very complex problem. But good leaders take complex problems and simplify them enough so that everybody can get behind what is required to resolve the situation. Bad leaders make complex problems more complex! Don’t fall into the later category!
Climate crisis is frightening. As an individual, I am trying my best to change the way that I live but it feels that I am fighting against an unstoppable force. As leaders, you must help me and everybody else find hope that solutions are achievable. You must give me the tools to make the changes whether it is moving to a plant based diet, reducing household waste or buying local. But what must come through from you is that by making these collective changes we will reduce our effect on the environment. We need to all row together if we are going to reverse climate change.
Now for the tough bit. Working together! We all know of the differences between countries - we see it in the media every day. These differences need to be put to one side and plans must be developed collectively with the single aim of reducing our impact on the environment. This has never been done before. But as our leaders, you must lift our horizons from the local to the global in such a way that we all feel part of something bigger and more long term.
If the Climate Crisis is not checked then it will continue to have a dramatic effect on my life whether it is unbearable hot weather, damaging floods, increased air pollution or the extinction of wild life that I ultimately depend upon. So COP26 leaders - this is it - time to act!