SIR – I would like to publicly thank the organisers of the youth climate strike in Worcester on March 15.

This was part of a global movement inspired by the Nobel Peace Prize nominee Greta Thunberg who, aged 15 years old, said at a United Nations climate conference: “You are not mature enough to tell it like is. Even that burden you leave to us children.” 

On March 5, I asked Worcester City Council’s environment committee to support the climate strike. Only three councillors out of 10 voted to support it, including the chairman of the committee.

The overwhelming majority of climate scientists around the world believe that humanity is responsible for climate change. The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a report last year that concluded that we have 12 years to massively reduce carbon emissions. A new UN study revealed a few days ago that even if we stop emissions immediately, the Arctic will still warm by 3-5C by the end of the century. 

Greta Thunberg said: “We can’t solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. We need to keep the fossil fuels in the ground.

“We have run out of excuses and we are running out of time.”

I urge the MP for Worcester and other local politicians to appreciate the scale of the climate emergency and do all in their power to do something about it.

Neil Laurenson

Green Party Councillor, St Stephen ward