Here's the letters of thanks I hope I'll be writing for the Christmas cards I receive in 2029...

"Thanks for your Christmas card. To answer your question, yes, I do remember the day I first realised that York had become happier. I had just stepped off the tram at Stonebow with fifty students, having ridden in from Elvington via Winthorpe, the university and Tang Hall …

It was July, 2028. The summer holidays had started and Parliament Street was heaving. I watched a cyclist push her electric trike into the drop-off pod that carried it underground. With twice as many people cycling, secure under-street parking arrived just in time; the city centre had started to look like a Dutch railway station at dawn!

I filled my water bottle at a drinking fountain as the electric mini-shuttle passed, ferrying people round the centre and on to the station. After all the anxiety, it was a relief to know a zero carbon future was nothing to be afraid of. In fact the city was better than ever. It felt happier.

My friends were waiting outside the art gallery. The new fountain in Exhibition Square was alive with children laughing and running between the random jets of water. Amazing how much fun you can have for nothing when you’re a kid!

Mark, Yaz and I collected an electric car from the hire pool and headed off to City Farm. (Did I tell you we actually grow fruit and veg in a vertical farm in the city now?) On the way Yaz said how car fumes used to make her lungs ache and how dangerous it used be cycling on Lendal Bridge before it was grassed over for the electric shuttle.

My parents used to say we wouldn’t survive without petrol. Everyone said it, even though we heard about cities where they’d ditched private cars and were still alive. We couldn’t imagine it. Until it happened. Great public transport services made all the difference; an attractive carrot works better than a pointy stick.

Anyway, it’s almost New Year. I still work in Petergate like in 2019 when you visited. Ten years ago! Ridiculous, isn’t it? Remember how Petergate used to be jammed with delivery vans? Not anymore. Five years ago they built distribution hubs in the forests they’ve planted along the ring road. Lorry deliveries are consolidated outside York and goods are brought to the city centre in electric vehicles. Thirty electric lorries instead of two hundred diesel vans. Less pollution and lower emissions. Why did that take so long to figure out?

Another thing. Remember you went mad at all the shop doors left open in the middle of winter? Millions of pounds of heat pouring into the sky. ‘Might as well burn banknotes to keep warm’ you said. Well that got solved too.

Everyone knew what was wrong but persuading people that change could make lives better is tough. People worry. As soon as politicians of all parties started working together, everything improved. Councillors agreed that, instead of the telling people off, the council needed to help residents create our future. Together. The citizens’ climate assembly was another turning point.

For me the November 2022 light festival was key. That’s when they installed the electriCITY feedback projector. It’s been running ever since. Basically they collect all York’s energy data then once a month the total electricity consumption is added up and if the figure is lower than the monthly total from the previous year the display projects a light show onto Clifford’s Tower. No improvement, no show. Slight improvement, a few poxy flashing lights. A major drop in energy consumption across York and you get the works: music and lights. There’s even live bands and a Viking army if the energy saving is massive!

From the start they had separate totals for schools, residents, businesses, and so on. It quickly became mega competitive; kids pestering their schools to cut carbon emissions just to see a Viking battle at the end of the month. Then businesses got interested. And residents. (It helps that all homes are now all super-insulated.) It was crazy but it worked! People started to believe. It brought the city together because it proved that we all have a part to play.

And that’s what persuaded all the shops to keep their stupid doors closed in winter! So come for the 2030 celebrations next year and see how we’ve changed. We haven’t yet reached a zero carbon future but we’re closer than anyone predicted. The city is cleaner, greener and happier. Can’t wait to show you."

Christian Vassie