Memo to COP26 leaders: abandon your hubris, politics, and pride and see the future through young people’s eyes

“Don’t let anybody else decide your future,” Barack Obama urged young people this week. “Imagine a better future and help make it real.” In fairness, young people aren’t the problem. The future, unfortunately, is controlled by their parents and grandparents, too many of whom see the future as an only slightly less rosy version of the past. Yet the multiverse of crises we face today won’t magically disappear with the click of a superhero’s fingers.

Growing numbers of doctors, young and old, are becoming climate activists, joining groups such as Extinction Rebellion to bring about climate policies that will preserve the planet for future generations (doi:10.1136/bmj.n2565).1 The political will to agree and implement those policies will be tested at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow from 31 October to 12 November. Any attempt to water down …