I WAS reading not long ago about a village called Fairbourne in northwest Wales.

It is halfway between Portmadog in the north and Aberystwyth to the south.

In the article it said that in about 26 years time, the villagers could be the UK’s first climate refugees.

Gwynedd council has said that it can no longer afford to repair the sea wall which keeps this low-lying area safe from the sea.

This really brings climate change consequences to our own doorsteps. Looking at a map of the UK, there are quite a few low-lying places around our coastline which are being kept safe by sea walls. Rising sea levels mean these walls will become easier to breach, especially during high spring tides.

In 2018, a report for the Government’s Committee on Climate Change found nearly 530,000 properties at risk around the English coast.

That is a lot of people to be re-homed, new jobs found, new schools found, doctors’ and dentists’ surgeries to be located, new friends to be made.

In some places, they won’t be able to go back to enjoy the place they used to know. It will be under water, restless waves lapping over rooftops.

How sad to imagine all those peoples' chimneys sticking up out of the water like accusing fingers.

You think this will not affect you as we are so far from the sea.

But where will these communities go? To which part of the UK would they be dispersed?

Now imagine that, but on a greater scale around the world as a consequence of climate change, and you start to see the problem.

It puts into perspective what we hear about communities in far-flung parts of the world like Lagos in Nigeria which also might not be able to afford defences and cope with flooding.

Or Bangladesh, caught in the delta of two major rivers, and the mountains behind from which the rains pour towards the delta, flooding all in their path. Or the many low-lying islands in the Pacific.

Would your holiday destination be safe?

We need to make change happen. Keep telling our MPs that we want the government to tell the truth about climate change and act now, not in 2025. We want Government to implement more stringent policies to ensure greater likelihood of reaching net-zero by 2050. Its own Committee for Climate Change says these changes need to happen now.