Letter 29 — To Alex Sobel MP

From regional momentum to national responsibility

Date: 10 November 2025
Recipient: Alex Sobel MP — Leeds Central & Headingley

Context

Week 5 of One Letter a Day turns from city and regional leadership toward national politics.
After four weeks of letters across Leeds and West Yorkshire, this new sequence asks how elected representatives can reconnect the country’s political conversation with long-term climate purpose.

As COP30 opens, the UK’s public debate feels crowded by short-term crises and the populist rhetoric of “green burdens”.
Alex Sobel, Labour & Co-operative MP for Leeds Central & Headingley and former Shadow Minister for Nature Recovery, has been a consistent advocate for linking climate and nature policy.
This letter opens the Westminster chapter by asking how Parliament can reclaim that shared sense of direction.

Letter

Dear Mr Sobel

As COP30 begins, the world is again talking about climate. Yet in Britain that conversation feels strangely muted. National debate has turned toward short-term grievances and manufactured divisions, while long-term responsibility has slipped from the headlines. I wanted to write to ask how Parliament can help restore climate action to the heart of public life.

I am writing as part of One Letter a Day: a year-long civic correspondence that seeks to keep open visible, respectful dialogue about the climate emergency, beginning here in Leeds. The letters and replies are published online to explore how concern becomes delivery, and how local leadership connects with national purpose.

You have often spoken about the link between climate and nature, and about the need for joined-up legislation such as the Climate and Nature Bill. That integration feels crucial now, both for policy and for public imagination. When national politics separates environmental goals from social ones, the story fragments; when it unites them, people see a future they can belong to.

How can MPs like you use the moment of COP30 to bring climate back into the political centre, not as a single-issue campaign but as the organising thread of economic, social and regional renewal? How can Parliament counter the rise of populist narratives that promise relief from “net-zero burdens” while offering no path to security or prosperity? And how might civic examples from cities like Leeds – where partnerships between councils, universities and communities are already delivering – be used to show that action is not only possible but beneficial?

I ask because public will has not disappeared: four out of five people in the UK still want decisive climate action. What’s missing is consistent political voice. If Parliament can speak to that shared purpose again, it might just turn anxiety back into hope.

With appreciation,
Vivien Badaut
Founder, One Letter a Day

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Tomorrow’s letter continues Week 5’s focus on political responsibility, turning to Rachel Reeves MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer.