Sir, – Your editorial (“Ending the age of fossil fuels”, December 14th) captures the exhilaration, frustrations and enormous opportunities and challenges we face in the coming decades. When what was to become the Kyoto Protocol was agreed in December 1997, there was a similar outburst of exhilaration and frustration among the participants. But we had momentum and early instruments that allowed the progression, often hesitant, of what has come to fruition in Paris last week.
Today we have an extraordinary agenda to develop and we need to focus on the policies and measures that will be implemented by governments and peoples to achieve climate balance in a more just and sustainable future. We have a unique convergence on what our final destination is. We are much better equipped for the journey than we were 18 years ago.
Since we are not in a “command and control’ world, we will only arrive with the consent of public opinion across the world. To create this support we need to respect the genuine differences in means and policy options and to create a fellowship on our journey that will maintain the critical political and social momentum needed in the difficult years ahead .
To those who have toiled in arriving at the COP21 agreement many thanks, and to future actors take courage in this noble endeavour. – Yours, etc,
KEVIN LEYDON,
Kraainem, Belgium.