COP26: a letter to school strikers

Myles Allen has written a letter telling school climate strikers that they seem to have made more impact on the climate issue in the past couple of years than he has managed in the previous three decades.

Along with suggesting strategies, he warns the activists to remain sceptical of pledges made during COP26. So far during hte event, there have been pledges reduce methane emissions by 30%, which will cut global temperatures by about one tenth of a degree - roughly the same degree of warming seen since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015. Leaders have pledged to stop deforestation by 2030 – again. And some countries that were planning to stop using coal anyway have said they are going to stop using coal. Clearly, this is not enough.

Allen writes, "The only net zero that matters for fossil fuels is what goes in and out of the earth’s crust. If the industry insists on continuing to dig fossil fuels up, it has to put the CO₂ back. This is the principle of carbon takeback, and it’s the only fair way to stop fossil fuels from causing global warming."