Geoff Robb’s witty COP26 comment (The height of hypocrisy is at 35,000 feet, Letters, October 30) made me smile, even though he was making a serious point.

As well as 25,000 delegates, presumably there are significant entourages. How do they all get to gather from across the globe if not by travelling by air? By sea with a fleet of solar-powered clipper ships? Could an accommodation be reached with Deliveroo, using a global network of rickshaws and pedalos? Zoom couldn’t yet cope with a jamboree of such scale and complexity.

If this much-hyped ‘massembly’ work - and so long as the net result of this great and expensive gathering isn’t just hot air which would further exacerbate the climate emergency - then the environmental cost in mounting and managing it will be a modest price to pay by comparison - if!

So let’s hope ‘COP26 isn’t just a ‘COP-out’. Will history reflect well on ‘COP26 and all that’ and see it as a major advance, a turning point even, with much positive and identifiable progress. In a way we’re fighting World War Three!

Derek Reed, Middlethorpe Drive, York

 

We need a wartime spirit - plus some sympathy!

Thank you Matt Rylatt for your wonderful letter (We need a war-time spirit to win climate battle, October 30). Yes, we do need a war-time spirit - by everyone, not just a minority of political activists, young people, Green party members and supporters. We all need to do our bit.

But we need to be aware of others as we do our bit. Extinction Rebellion supporters seem not to care at all for others when they lie on the roads and stop ambulances taking the sick or dying to hospitals and disrupt others who mostly sympathise with their cause from going about their business.

Edwin Self, Minster View, Wigginton

 

We should just get on and do what we can - without delay

I agree with Christian Vassie (Letters, October 29) that a one per cent response to consultation on climate change is disappointing.

However, councillors know what powers they have and, facing today’s critical climate problems, I believe most would say ‘Just get on and do what is within your power without delay’.

At a national level it is the Government’s responsibility to act to achieve the UK’s legally binding targets. MPs know the targets so my message to them, too, is ‘Just get on and do what is within your power without delay’.

Internationally, Governments the world over must work together on behalf of humanity. COP26 is the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

As there is no world government, that is the only world forum for tackling climate change. Would it really be better to cancel COP 26 because it is ‘just a talking shop’ Mr Robb? (Letters October 29).

Quentin Macdonald, Nether Poppleton, York