My hope for Earth Day is to ‘humanise’ energy

Affordability, energy justice and societal acceptability matters are moving up the political agenda

On the first Earth Day, in 1970, I was one in 3.7bn people on the planet. As a seven year-old girl, I was totally unaware of global climate change, but constantly reminded of the threat of nuclear war. The previous year had made a lasting impression on me—the first televised pictures of the Earth from the Moon were beamed across the world. Without yet realising it, I was part of a new era of global-minded, environmentally conscious people. Fifty years later, and after a doubling of global population, Earth Day 2021 will highlight the net-zero carbon goals being committed to by an increasing number of countries, companies, cities and communities in the run-up to the Cop26 meeting in Glasgow.