ANNE-MARIE TREVELYAN: Most are taking lockdown challenge ‘in their stride’

What happens next depends on each and every one of us. It is therefore necessary to stay at home; protect the NHS; and save lives.

As the Prime Minister has set out, we are at a critical stage to fight this second wave of coronavirus.

The risk is that for the first time in our lives, the NHS will not be there for us and for our families.

This aggressive action allows us the prospect of a better December. The alternative would be even more stringent, and longer-lasting, interventions through December and thereafter.

What happens next depends on each and every one of us. It is therefore necessary to stay at home; protect the NHS; and save lives. These measures are time-limited and we can hopefully move back to the tiered system.

Unlike the initial lockdown of the spring, the measures allow for children to continue to receive their education, and for us to visit loved ones in care homes. The furlough and self-employed support schemes have been extended to March, and there are business grants available to all businesses who have been forced to close, worth up to £3,000 per month.

Covid-19 is not the only challenge we face as a nation and a planet, the challenges brought about by climate change have not abated.

I was honoured to be asked by the Prime Minister to become his International Champion for adaptation and resilience for COP 26 – the United Nation’s committee on climate change, being hosted by the UK in Glasgow in 2021.

It will be the most significant climate summit since the 2015 Paris Agreement. I will be the lead on building consensus with countries across the globe, but especially in building strong relationships with developing countries for whom climate change impacts are disproportionately large, even though they have generated almost none of the CO2 which is impacting on global temperatures.

The challenges we all face are not only about mitigation of CO2 by shifting from coal to renewables, but at the same time using technology to become resilient to climate shocks and adapt to unavoidable climate change for the long-term viability of all our planet’s communities - human and the natural world.