A few days ago I was invited to a meeting of Cumbrian leaders by Cumbria Action for Sustainability.

The object of the meeting was to review the actions which each of us have been taking to reduce our carbon footprint.

Several organisations, including local businesses, the Lake District National Park, the County Council, Carlisle City Council, Natural England and SLDC, spoke about the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and what we are doing in that regard.

I was enormously impressed by the commitment of the leaders to cooperate in an effort to reach carbon neutrality.

We agreed to actively investigate how we can collaborate to help tackle Climate Change.

The next day I attended an amazing volunteer event in Lancaster.

Over 300 people who share a concern about Climate Change came from all over Britain to discuss the scientific evidence that our world is warming, the consequences of this warming and the steps we can take to mitigate this change.

I was particularly impressed by a presentation, given by a medical doctor, on the impact on human health of Climate Change. Global water and food shortages, stress caused by extreme weather and the spread of disease, were just some of the challenges that we may face if the world continues to warm.

Then the next week, I attended the meeting of Kendal Town Council where we declared a climate emergency and agreed to raise money to hold a people’s jury on the subject.

The purpose of such a jury is to engage residents in a discussion of climate related issues as well as developing a grass roots action plan for the town, to move toward carbon neutrality.

And this is not all that is happening. SLDC continues to implement an action plan for greenhouse gas mitigation, the County is developing its strategy for carbon reduction and several lobby groups are stepping up their activity. Further afield, many Americans are advocating a ‘Green New Deal’.

Attitudes are changing, Action is being taken, but our children are demanding we do more - and quite rightly so.

A UN report last year suggested we may have only 12 years to fix this problem. That is not long. Thanks to many of the climate change pioneers, we’ve made a start. Now we all need to get on board.