More than a hundred high-end parents, from tech entrepreneur Martha Lane-Fox to fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, suggested Sunday to the UK government that the economic recovery of the pandemic take over climate change and put young people at the centre.
The 115 business leaders, musicians, scientists, actors and activists used an open letter to urge British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to “get out of a disaster by overcharging the next.”
Actress Julie Walters, who was among the signatories, said governments are stepping up their efforts to combat climate change, just as they reacted to protect other people from Covid-19.
“For the sake of our children, we want governments to devote the same power and investment to preventing an even more serious weather disaster in the world,” he said.
If planet-warming emissions rebound to pre-pandemic levels, it would have “catastrophic consequences for children’s lives and livelihoods”, the letter warned, with those from the poorest and most disadvantaged communities being hit hardest.
Spending on ecological measures, such as boosting renewable energy, isolating homes, electric car charging stations, and restoring forests, would create more and more jobs than rebuilding a fossil fuel economy, he said.
Other young people have the maximum chance of losing their jobs or seeing their income drop while the virus is blocked, he noted.
“Investing in a low-carbon recovery makes sense, whether it’s the economy or the environment. Both are inextricably linked,” said former Unilever executive leader Paul Polman, who signed the letter.
Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, who campaigned for her nine-year-old daughter’s asthma death in 2013 to officially relate to illegal degrees of air pollution, said she hoped that, as a father to a baby, Johnson would perceive the impact.
“This is not an elitist conversation, air pollutants affect the poorest and most vulnerable, and we will have to continue the fight,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“Whenever the prime minister says ‘build, build, build,’ I’m concerned that there’s nothing eco-friendly about initiatives,” said Kissi-Debrah, the World Health Organization’s fitness and air quality.
Parents plan to meet outdoors at the prime minister’s apartment on Downing Street on Sunday to coincide with the letter, coordinated through the Mothers Rise Up and Parents for Future UK weather activist teams.
Parents, a metre away, will use portable wind turbines to symbolize the desire for low-carbon investments.
The UK government’s binding goal is to reduce its greenhouse fuel emissions to zero by 2050.
In June, Britain’s independent Committee on Climate Change said the country would have to move faster to achieve that goal.
Its president, John Gummer, wants to seize a “unique opportunity” presented through the pandemic to boost the economy on a greener path.
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