Bruce's Letter

To my granddaughters Esther and Naomi,

By the time you are old enough to vote, the 2030 deadline for international climate action will have passed, and I truly hope and pray that world governments - especially those of the richer sector - will have lived up to their promises to make a positive difference.

The problem is that at each year's COP meeting they make grandiose promises, but then they don’t deliver on them. There are some half-hearted measures, to be sure, but they are not far reaching enough; and there is still too much reliance on fossil fuel. Right now the future looks very bleak.

By the time you are 18 Esther - and that's just 12 years from now - I hope my concerns above will have proven unfounded and that governments will, at long last, have done something on a scale that really makes a difference for your future and the future of our world.

It will be a world where:
• riches are shared more equally across the nations;
• nations who have done the greatest damage have done the most to make amends;
• the threat of mass migration because of agricultural collapse has become a distant memory;
• the seasons are restored to their proper balance; and
• the threat of extinction to thousands of species of animals and plants has disappeared.