Act now to save our planet – and children

YOUR readers may know that Bristol City Council has declared a ‘Climate Emergency’, and instructed its officers to draw up an action plan for making Bristol carbon neutral by 2030.

I’m writing to support Bristol Green Party councillors’ just published report, Change Starts Now.

Can we really make the city of Bristol carbon neutral so it doesn’t produce more greenhouse gas emissions than its green spaces can absorb? I think we can do it. It may sound over-ambitious, but we are now in the era not just of climate change, but climate emergency.

If we don’t get our leaky houses properly insulated (lowering fuel bills), make public transport green and better (cut down on car use) and change to electricity from renewable sources, we’ll be in big trouble.

It’s not our distant descendants, but young people alive today who will experience more extreme weather, food shortages, and huge influxes of refugees driven from their homes by rising seas, or droughts that destroy their farms.

If we act now, we can avoid the worst effects of climate breakdown. The switch to renewables and the work of getting the housing stock up to scratch will bring thousands of jobs.

As a grandmother, I worry about what my three grandchildren will have to face.

For the sake of our kids, change does need to start now.