We would like to applaud Robert Courts for taking the time and trouble to grapple with the science of climate change. We congratulate and celebrate him on this account.

The following extracts are from letters Robert has written to Hugo. They are published with permission: 

On 27th September 2017 Robert wrote that “… I fully agree that we need to address this issue. Indeed, as well as the obvious environmental threats, climate change is one of the most serious long-term economic threats that this country and the world faces.”

On 30th October 2018 he wrote that “… the government continues to recognise that climate change is one of the most serious long-term threats that this country and this world faces.”

Note here the removal of ‘economic’. Climate change is, of course, a threat to world economies but the damage it is set to cause goes way beyond the merely economic.  

Robert has publicly recognised this.  On 10th October 2022, after hearing what the government’s Chief Scientific Adviser had to say on climate change, he went much further than previously and wrote this:  “I have indeed looked through the presentation delivered by the Chief Scientific Adviser to parliamentarians earlier this year. The presentation only served to reinforce my longstanding belief that climate change is the most significant existential issue of our generation.”

Now in what Robert writes, climate change is not just one among a number of the most serious long-term threats; it is the most significant existential issue of our generation.

Robert’s words in October 2022 indicate his unqualified endorsement of what the science tells us about the nature of our current plight. Robert states that the issue is ‘existential’. We looked ‘existential’ up in the biggest book we could find where it said it meant ‘related to existence’. In other words, Robert is publicly recognising that climate change affects the chances of us, or civilised life, ceasing to exist - as potentially not being possible any more. That’s an overwhelmingly significant statement and enormously important for policy-making up in Westminster.

We celebrate Robert for his true and challenging words in 2022, and we do this sincerely. We have his words, and now we urge his deeds. We urge him to follow up his powerful statement with actions in Westminster which will properly address the urgency of the situation he has so accurately and forcefully presented. We ask him to lobby, canvass and vote against old, fossil fuel business-as-usual and for an immediate and radical switch to the future – to the better, greener alternatives we all know are there and ready to go.