There have been many wise words spoken in recent weeks about climate change, not least from Year Six students from Larchwood Primary School in Pilgrims Hatch who have written to me with some of the most sensible proposals and ideas I have had in my postbag for some time.
The children told me people of my age have not done enough to tackle climate change. Fortunately, I was able to tell them this Government has put Britain firmly on track to meet the 2050 target to reduce emissions of all greenhouse gases by 80 per cent and underpin the remarkable investment that the UK has seen in its low carbon economy since 2010.
The Energy Minister, Claire Perry, has also noted that we have cut our emissions per unit of national income on average by 3.7 per cent a year, well ahead of the EU average of 2.3 per cent and the G7 average of 2.2 per cent. The last time the UK’s emissions were this low was in 1888.
But the Larchwood Primary children are putting the pressure on. The big picture of climate change needs to be changed with little steps. They want us all to think more about the resources we use, stop our use of single use plastics and recycle what we don’t use more efficiently. These are small changes we could all make and the constituency of Brentwood and Ongar could certainly benefit from less litter, more thought about taking rubbish home to recycle it when we are out and about, and buying fewer highly packaged products. We all need to play our part.