John Vidal hit the nail on the head by linking Meghan and Harry’s choice to limit their family size for the sake of the climate to the lack of access many women globally have to services that would enable them to make the same choice (Having kids is bad for the planet. So are the royal jets, 1 August). Vidal highlighted that “many in areas of high growth want fewer children but cannot access contraception”, and as CEO of a global organisation providing women and girls with access to family planning, I agree. More than 214 million women and girls worldwide are unable to access contraception. Yet we know that when they have access to contraception and safe abortion, they often choose, like Meghan, to have smaller families.

Women are increasingly and disproportionately bearing the burden of the climate crisis. It often falls on women to care for growing families in worsening conditions. Droughts mean limited access to food and water. Rising sea levels lead to floods. Humans and animals are competing for dwindling resources, especially in countries that contribute least to global carbon emissions.

By 2050, populations in low and middle income countries are expected to more than double to 1.7 billion – and offering women real choice in contraception to empower them to determine their futures in the face of the climate crisis is something that can no longer be overlooked. Women want it, the world needs it, and governments must take action to increase access to family planning now.

Simon Cooke

CEO, Marie Stopes International

• You write that “Poorer countries, which broadly speaking are the least to blame for the climate crisis – emitting less carbon dioxide per capita – will suffer most” (Editorial, 1 August). As overseas development charities like Cafod witness every day, there is no “will” about it. Poor people in poorer countries have been suffering the effects of climate change for many years. A 2013 DfID-funded paper found: “This analysis provides evidence that a drought in East Africa such as seen in 2011 has become more probable as a result of anthropogenic climate change.” The drought affected 10 million people in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda. Many of whom would have migrated, some possibly to Europe.

David Murray

Wallington, Surrey

• There is a silver lining to the dark cloud of the insulting and offensive comments made by Andrew Bolt about Greta Thunberg (Thunberg hits back at columnist who mocked her autism, 3 August).

The fact that Bolt has resorted to such a personal attack on her means he has no credible arguments against the substance and science of what she is telling the world about the seriousness of climate change.

Small comfort for Ms Thunberg perhaps, but telling.

Harvey Sanders

London

• Mark Carney is right to stress the need for urgent action to tackle climate change. However, his assertion that the invisible hand of the market will provide a fix (Report, 31 July) ignores the central role of capitalism in the climate crisis itself: oil spills, land grabs, slash and burn, intensive farming, resource exhaustion, and unhampered economic growth in a physically finite planet. To borrow a phrase from Audre Lorde, “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”. We need to square the challenge of climate change with system change.

Oliver Taherzadeh

Cambridge

• May I suggest that, as a climate emergency now officially exists in the UK, you reposition the regular item on your Weather page entitled “Carbon count”? Currently the information included under this heading – ie the daily atmospheric CO 2 readings from Mauna Loa, Hawaii, compared against both a pre-industrial base and what is judged a “safe level” – are tucked away under the heading of “Weather”. Not only is this rather misleading as the information relates to climate, not weather, but in the current emergency I would argue that this is by far and away the most important item of daily news that you report in your paper. Should it not be prominently displayed on the front page?

Dr Colin Campbell

York

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