{YOUR ADDRESS}

 

 

{NAME OF LOCAL MP} MP

House of Commons

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{DATE}

 

Dear {NAME OF LOCAL MP} MP

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My family and I are residents of {TOWN/CITY/LOCATION}  within your constituency and we are writing to you as our local Member of Parliament. 

 

We are writing to make a heartfelt plea to you, the rest of Government and all Parliamentarians to take much greater action to cut greenhouse gas emissions drastically in real terms by 2030.

 

We also implore you, the rest of Government and all Parliamentarians to speak out much more clearly and unequivocally about the seriousness of the issue, the current critical situation and the need for urgent action.

 

Even from the most cursory reading and basic understanding of current mainstream climate science, it is clear that much greater action is needed. This has been stated very clearly, many times by the United Nations Inter governmental Panel on Climate Change and other independent bodies focussed on the science including the UK's own independent government advisors The Committee on Climate Change.

 

We are a working family, not climate scientists, however, we believe we have already seen the first effects of Climate Change locally here in  {YOUR LOCATION . DESCRIBE ANY LOCAL EFFECTS YOU HAVE OBSERVED SUCH AS METEOROLOGICAL RECORDS BROKEN, LONGER DRYER SUMMERS ETC}.

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We realise these observations are very local, anecdotal and not very scientific. However they are completely consistent with the wider picture provided by more objective observations from the met office and other respected scientific bodies which report meteorological records being broken each year nationally which we all hear regularly now in the news: ever higher peak summer temperatures, hottest months on record year on year, dryest months on record year on year etc etc. We also see the news from around the world of unprecedented extreme weather events - such as the recent freak floods (Australia last year, Pakistan this year) and the incredible Canadian Heat Dome event (previously considered to be a 1 in 1000 year event) – all made hundreds of times more likely due to climate change.

 

Our understanding of current mainstream climate science is that we are currently on course to exceed 3degC warming by 2100 (ie in the next 80 years) according to UN IPCC Assessment Report No6 released earlier this year. It is widely considered that this would be catastrophic for the UK and also for millions of people around the world.

 

This means that unless significant cuts are made to greenhouse gas emissions very urgently the children of our own families and all young people that do not have a voice today will potentially witness climate catastrophe within their own lifetime.

 

For us, this is the part which is truly staggering and difficult to comprehend: that unless significant cuts are made to greenhouse gas emissions very urgently the children of our own families and all young people that do not have a voice today will potentially have to deal with a deepening climate catastrophe within their lifetime.

 

It is a truly unprecedented situation in the history of humankind. Therefore very difficult to believe. That our in-action now could fundamentally change life on earth and profoundly affect the very nature of human existence on Earth as we currently know it within the lifetime of the children of our own families.

 

It is all the more difficult to comprehend and believe when the early signs we are witnessing now are modest - relatively. For many of us this lack of immediate, visceral, evidence of a reported forthcoming apocalypse leads to a sort of paralysis of disbelief. It is easier to choose to disbelieve, dismiss and adopt a different and more palatable narrative because the scientific predictions are so unthinkable, mean such profound changes for us all and are so far removed from everything we have experienced in living memory. We look around and see everyone else behaving as if nothing is happening, and continue to do the same.

 

But if we all continue to go on living in this state of denial and do nothing meaningful to tackle the issue – we will collectively be responsible for creating a nightmare world for the children and grandchildren of our own families and the great achievements of our current age will no longer be the norm: peace, stability, security and plenty.

 

The most recent science is clear that there is no longer time to create ever more ambitious targets for future administrations and generations, whilst doing little of substance in the present, as has happened for the past 30 years under the leadership numerous different administrations (since 1989 when Margaret Thatcher was the first PM to recognise the threat posed by climate change).

 

The UK Net Zero Strategy published in Oct 2021 was a step in the right direction, and we are encouraged by the clear acknowledgement in its executive summary (on page 14) of the reality of the Climate Emergency.

 

For the UK, offshore wind and other zero carbon initiatives have also been positive first steps.

 

However, such initiatives need to multiply very quickly, be expanded and scaled up very significantly and urgently. The UK Net Zero Strategy is very light on detail and does not commit to the hard hitting policies needed to cut greenhouse gas emissions imminently that are needed.

 

Our reading of the current scientific consensus is that very significant and real cuts to greenhouse gas emissions are essential in the next 10 years to avoid exceeding the 'safe' warming level of 1.5deg C (agreed in Paris) soon after which point human intervention becomes increasingly less likely to be able to stop a runaway greenhouse effect. Serious cuts in the immediate term are therefore essential both nationally and internationally to prevent this tipping point being reached.

 

Predictions of climate catastrophe and the need for such drastic action in such a short time frame have sometimes been dismissed as overly pessimistic and 'doom-laden'. However, there is now a very robust consensus in the science, thoroughly pier reviewed from very credible scientists and institutions which forms the backbone of the work by the UN IPCC across the scientist of 196 nations.

 

It is clearly a monumentally huge issue and there is no single 'golden bullet' that will solve it.

 

We all know that greenhouse gasses are emitted in a myriad of different ways from many many different and unique sources and processes. Purging greenhouse gas emissions from every aspect of human activity is therefore going to take the combined efforts of many many people in the public and private sectors from many different fields to solve, seeking new solutions to how we do many things. Clearly this will mean hugely profound and fundamental change across all human activities. Short term vested interests everywhere will continue inevitably to push back against such change, and this will continue to present huge challenges politically.

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However, it cannot be right, or acceptable, for our generation to leave a world of climate chaos to the children, grand children and future generations of all our families - nationally and internationally.

 

Surely we have a moral obligation to ensure we do not leave the legacy of a runaway greenhouse to those who inherit the planet after we have gone? Surely it would be a criminal act – to force future generations to endure ever escalating extremes of weather, sea level rises, food shortages, mass migrations and all the instability and conflict that would result?

 

The good news, is that it is still within our gift to avert this catastrophe. But this requires swift and decisive action to be taken immediately and not allowing short term vested interests to prevent the changes that are needed very urgently.

 

Though it is a crisis not entirely of our making, it falls to our generation to solve it.

 

This is the reason for our heartfelt plea to you our MP and all Parliamentarians of all parties to take much greater action to cut greenhouse gas emissions drastically in real terms by 2030.

 

We accept that the transition to a sustainable economy in the short term will be multi faceted difficult and expensive.

 

Transitioning to a sustainable economy quickly will require huge amounts of national spending diverted to such things as modifications to infrastructure, insulating huge numbers of buildings and replacing the whole of our fossil fuel powered lives with clean renewables. In the UK we should invest heavily in research and development as we, as a country, are well placed to assist efforts to combat climate change worldwide with our strength in the creative and innovation sectors, and then benefit economically from the technologies and products that result. This has to be the basis for the new economy moving forward.

 

The policies needed may not be an easy sell at the next election as it appears many voters are not sufficiently engaged in the urgency of the issue - or are in denial.

 

For this reason, we also implore you and all parliamentarians to very clearly and publicly declare a Climate Emergency (as many local authorities have already done) and act accordingly: be very clear and open with the public at large about the science, the seriousness, potential peril of the situation and the actions that are required if the children, grandchildren and all future generations of our own families are not to suffer the consequences of catastrophic climate change.

 

Anecdotally, a lot of people we talk to that are worried and concerned about climate change feel powerless and that any action they may take as individuals will be meaningless. A lot of other people we know accept that climate change is happening but choose to pay it no attention, or choose not to believe it, purposely look the other way and continue to live like it is not happening. Whatever the reason, as a society in the UK overall, we continue to be profligate with the greenhouse gas emissions we are responsible for despite awareness slowly growing. This translates into very little if any meaningful action at all for many many people.

 

In many ways inaction by individuals is perhaps understandable because on a day to day level apart from an occasional TV documentary and very occasional news headline there are few if any signals or reminders that we are in a Climate Emergency and a huge collective effort is needed to tackle it.

 

We all now know what an emergency looks like after COVID. In an emergency governments take extraordinary measures – act quickly and decisively, instigate new rules and broadcast regular briefings on the issue.

 

But with the Climate Emergency there have been no extraordinary measures from government, only very sporadic mention of the issue and no evidence of a sense of urgency at all. In our daily lives, the messages we receives are not of a climate emergency at all. Quite the opposite in fact: business as usual: Adverts everywhere for flights to far flung destinations for a week's holiday (in fossil fuel powered aircraft which will double most people's yearly carbon footprint in one hit), supermarket shelves still piled high with out of season luxury foods flown in from the other side of the world (with huge embodied CO2), motor sport broadcast regularly on TV (vehicles burning fossil fuels being raced for fun), new petrol fuelled vehicles still available to buy (that will continue to need fossil fuels to power them and produce CO2 for the next 20 years) and so it goes on: business as usual. “Climate-crisis? What climate-crisis?” we could be forgiven for asking when the day to day messages we receive all around us encouraging everyone to continue living this way.

 

We have not yet even passed legislation to secure relatively 'easy wins' to reduce CO2 production, such as ensuring all new-built homes are zero carbon: super-insulated, all electric, fitted with air source heat pumps and have roofs covered with solar panels. Today new houses are still being built with conventional gas boilers (which will need to be replaced in a few years if we are to meet our CO2 targets) and no solar panels on roofs. Embodied CO2 in foods and other products are not yet even labelled to help people make informed choices to reduce our individual carbon footprints.

 

So, for most people there are few if any signals or reminders in their everyday lives that we are living in a Climate Emergency.

 

For most people voluntarily taking any truly meaningful action on the issue is therefore – understandably perhaps – way down their list of priorities. For the majority, the more compelling and immediate concerns of daily life, other desires and simple convenience continue to take priority, whilst the Climate Emergency still has the sense of something vague, distant and far off in the distance, not really relevant to daily life (ironically the current cost of living crisis would be far less of an emergency if we had acted sooner to tackle climate change – i.e. our houses and cars all running much more energy efficiently on non-fossil fuel generated electricity).

 

How does this culture change? Unless all our leaders speak out and clearly and boldly, inform the public about the Climate Crisis and what it will mean for our own children and grandchildren and seek support for legislating to tackle it in all spheres of activity.

 

Up to now the voices we have heard ringing out most clearly on the issue in the UK regularly, and unambiguously (apart from the scientific bodies and the UN) are Sir David Attenborough and Grethe Thunberg. Surely it cannot be right that an issue of such huge importance is left to a 90 year old naturalist TV presenter and a Swedish Schoolgirl to publicise and inform the public of the truth?

 

As an absolute minimum the issue needs to be a subject of regular briefings by our elected leaders: reports on emerging observations, the science, exciting technological solutions and policies to tackle the issue.

 

Unless the electorate understand the seriousness and importance of the issue and see that there are solutions that work and are worth striving for, there will never be enough votes in the issue at elections; election manifestos will always hedge away from tackling Climate Change and insufficient action will continue to result.

 

The profile of the issue needs to be hugely increased, brought out in the open, made a daily reality, debated and discussed.

 

There will be plenty of doubters and many will still resist no doubt.

 

However, anecdotally, we sense there has been a shift in perception over the last two or three years. Deep down, most people now know, and 'feel', that Climate Change is real. When we discuss the issue with people, describing our concerns and the science as we understand it, explain how we feel and the actions we are taking, most people share our concern and broadly agree. Even those who a few years ago would have dismissed the issue out of hand. However, for most people there still remains this vast disconnect between the broad acceptance of the science, and pro-actively taking any action meaningfully.

 

This is the reason for our heartfelt plea to you, the rest of Government and all Parliamentarians to speak out much more clearly and unequivocally about the seriousness of the current situation. Activate everyone who deep down knows climate change is real but haven't yet acted on it. The profile of the issue needs to be hugely increased, brought out in the open, made a daily reality, debated and discussed. Put the case for action to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions urgently.

 

Voluntarily we are doing what we reasonably can to reduce the carbon footprint of our family. The reality is that it requires more effort, is time consuming, costs more and is often not as convenient. We have insulated our home (though more needs to be done), put solar panels on the roof, changed the emphasis of our diet to plant based, taken the decision not to fly again until there are more sustainable forms of flying (though sustainably forms of flying aren't anywhere on the horizon yet), we walk, bike and use the train more. Like many other people we cannot yet afford to buy an electric car, though this is our next aim.

 

However, without greater action from you, the government and all parliamentarians on this issue our individual efforts are all but completely meaningless.

 

In government, no doubt, there will always be other very pressing and apparently more immediate issues to address. But the Climate Crisis needs significant action now, before it is too late. Hence our heartfelt plea.

 

Please commit to taking significantly more action to cut greenhouse gas emissions drastically in real terms by 2030 to prevent the children, grand children and future generations of all our families having to suffer the consequences of Climate Chaos.

 

It falls to all of us to solve it, but you – as our elected representative in particular.

 

We would be very grateful to hear your thoughts on this, and what more can be done.

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Yours Sincerely,

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{YOUR NAME}