WHILE I admire Robert Nemeth’s commitment to his environmental principles (The Argus, November 16), and agree that some protesters can get it wrong or even be hypocritical, I strongly refute his suggestion that protesting isn’t appropriate.

If it weren’t for protesters, women wouldn’t have the vote. Nor would we have a South Downs National Park, stronger protection for nationally important wildlife sites, and much more.

Nor would climate change be getting the focus it is now without the Extinction Rebellion protests.

Leaving it to individuals is abdicating political responsibility. While they can do much, it is difficult for them to achieve a lot without system change.

It is not so much the Government departments that block progress but the ministers who run them. Just look at how disastrous Chris Grayling was, cancelling rail electrification and then ordering more expensive and polluting diesel-electric trains.

Equally, we can’t rely on the private sector to sort out climate change.

Yes there will be innovations but what happened with the VW scandal should serve as a warning that we can’t rely on industry to solve the problem for us. Nine years after illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide should have been eradicated from our streets, it will be another six years before our air meets legal standards.

The Tyndall Centre for climate research has estimated that we have about seven years left of emitting carbon at 2017 levels. If this isn’t an emergency, I don’t know what is. And every year we delay meaningful action makes it that much harder to get to net-zero carbon by 2050.

One of the worst parts of government is the Department for Transport, which has overseen a rise of carbon emissions.

It continues to build big new roads pushing up levels even higher, while overseeing inflation busting fare rises on public transport and a paucity of investment in walking and cycling. Conversion to electric vehicles is an important part of the solution but in itself is not enough. We need more urgent action to reduce road traffic.

We need politicians who can rise above party politics to lead on tackling climate change, not abdicating responsibility for taking action now in the hope there will be some technological fix in the future. We’ve seen how disastrous that was with air pollution; we cannot afford the same mistakes with climate change, when the stakes are even higher.

Chris Todd, Brighton and Hove Friends of the Earth Hollingdean Terrace Brighton