According to the Met Office: "The evidence is clear: the main cause of climate change is burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and coal. When burnt, fossil fuels release carbon dioxide into the air, causing the planet to heat up."

At the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 world leaders promised to limit the long-term temperature rise to 1.5C to help avoid the most damaging impacts of man-made climate change.  But according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service global warming has for the first time exceeded this threshold across an entire year!

Prof Sir Bob Watson, a former chair of the UN's climate body, recently told the BBC Radio 4's Today Programme: "Look what's happened this year with only 1.5C - we've seen floods, we've seen droughts, we've seen heatwaves and wildfires all over the world."

Antonio Guterres the UN Secretary-General said in a speech in New York. "I must call out the flood of fossil fuel expansion we are seeing in some of the world's wealthiest countries. In signing such a surge of new oil and gas licenses, they are signing away our future. The leadership of those with the greatest capabilities and capacities is essential. Countries must phase out fossil fuels - fast and fairly."  The 'countries' he refers to include the UK.

You will perhaps have seen in the press the 'stiff' sentences handed out to the five Just Stop Oil protesters who climbed onto the Dartford Crossing in 2022 forcing it to close to traffic. JSO is applying pressure on the government to stop the extraction of theet to school, people could not get to work and others missed appointments and so on.

But JSO and others would say that these 'inconveniences' are nothing when compared to the potential effects on us here in Britain of floods, fires, drought and other extreme weather events.

We may well not agree with JSO's methods, but what will be the cost of us all on our children and future generations if we do nothing?

Alan Murray

Sustainable Crediton - Climate Action Team