🌱 Thirty Letters In, From Local Resolve to National Responsibility

Vivien Badaut

14 Nov 2025 — 1 min read

Date: 12 November 2025

Milestone Reflection

Context

The last post marked the thirtieth letter of One Letter a Day.

In the past month the project has travelled from neighbourhood concerns to city offices, university departments, community organisations, regional authorities – and now, with a letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, into the national conversation.

What began as a local act of civic persistence has become a map of how climate purpose is carried through different layers of public life.

What the Replies Reveal

Seven respondents have written back so far, and together their replies trace a clear landscape. Councillors describe concrete local progress on air quality, housing and transport. Academic and cultural voices emphasise imagination, participation and civic institutions. Council leadership points to a shift toward shared, city-wide ownership of climate ambitions.

Across these perspectives, a common gap appears. Most replies catalogue what is being done, but engage less with the deeper questions raised by the letters: how civic belief is sustained, how participation is supported, and how progress is shown in ways that strengthen public confidence.

The picture that emerges is committed but incomplete; evidence of work underway, alongside a recurring tension between doing more and including more.

A Pause to Reflect

Reaching the 30-letter mark is not only a milestone but a moment to pause.

The project has revealed both enthusiasm and limits: institutions willing to reply, but also a public conversation that remains fragile, and engagement with the letters limited by the current lack of promotion.

For that reason, One Letter a Day will briefly pause its daily letters while considering the next phase of public engagement – how to keep building visible, grounded and hopeful dialogue at a rhythm that sustains attention without exhausting it while creating visibility that this conversation is happening.

Looking Ahead

As COP30 unfolds, this pause is a reminder of the project’s original purpose: that climate action is not only technical or political, but civic. Real transition depends on trust, shared imagination, and the belief that change is both possible and already underway.

The next chapter of One Letter a Day will return to this work with the same care and clarity – informed by what these first thirty letters have revealed, and by the people who chose to answer.

Letter 30 — To Rachel Reeves MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer

From economic strain to civic preparedness Date: 11 November 2025 Recipient: Rachel Reeves MP — Chancellor of the Exchequer Context Week 5 of One Letter a Day turns toward Westminster. After a month spent tracing climate delivery from communities to city halls, these letters ask how national politics can reconnect the

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

Letter 28 — To Tracy Brabin

From regional delivery to civic imagination Date: 10 November 2025 Recipient: Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire Context Week 4 concludes with the region’s political voice at its highest level. Following letters to the city’s operational, democratic and institutional leaders, this final exchange turns to Tracy Brabin, Mayor

📫Letter 27 — To Ed Whiting (with reply)

I think that as a council we have made quite a fundamental shift this year in the way that we position our ambitions, rather than them being led by the council, external conveners are leading the city conversation with the council’s support.