There is a prevalent and naïve thinking that climate events will magically end if we somehow got to net-zero.

This is not the case. The unprecedented tornados that hit Germany will continue. Suffocating heat will still come earlier and earlier in India. There will still be droughts in the US.

Germany is the third-largest exporter of goods; disruptions to them leave our shops empty. India makes our medicines; the heat there will affect our health. The US provides the world with grains; drought for them is higher food prices for us.

That is why we need to face the truth. The cost of living rises this year are not going away. The climate is responsible for much of it. Governments need to face up to the same. When people have no money, they will not have any revenue either. Whatever their policies and intentions, the climate cares only about one thing – the total amount of greenhouse gases we emit.

The International Energy Agency is warning us we are increasing our fossil fuel use. Its latest Oil Market Report states oil demand will go up by 1.8 million barrels per day. We use 99.4 million barrels every day.

This growth is in line with the past decades. We may have accelerated our renewable capacity, but we have not slowed our fossil fuel use.

Whatever our net-zero plans, we must wake up to the fact that we are increasing our oil, gas, and coal consumption. This means that regardless of the successes or failures of our efforts, climate events will worsen. We ­need those net-zero efforts because without them climate events will never stop worsening.

It is up to us. We need to start thinking in these terms. Do you like music festivals? Do you run a business and want to continue? Do enjoy your pasta? Rice? If yes, then what is the worst thing that can happen and prepare for it. This is being realistic. Only then will we realise we need an actual plan to put fossil fuels to rest.

Our proposal is for businesses to pay a fee – consider it a fee for maintaining the planet. This is from the money we have all spent. This is put into a single, global and publicly owned fund to buy out all the oil, gas, and coal producers – in effect, a public takeover – to reduce production guided by climate science. Everyone will then know precisely how much is still available and how fast it will go away and can make our own choices.

The oil, gas, and coal companies will continue to operate for profit. They provide energy, technologies, and alternatives and look after the decommissioning. But what about the profits? The Fund will give this to support local projects people nominate for themselves. In 2021, fossil fuel companies’ dividends totalled $110 billion, equal to $14 per person. People can choose where to spend it – whether to celebrate their living or on a communal heat pump, they know best what they need.

We call this proposal Transformational Ownership.

With it in place, total emission is explicitly limited. Carbon pricing and credits which have not slowed emissions will be powerful in directing energy to where it is needed; reporting will let us know where that is. The trees we plant, the net-zero, mitigation and adaptation efforts will all have a better chance of success.

As long as fossil fuels are available, activities that make the most money will soak up the renewables we produce. For proof, just look at cryptos. Our behaviour will not change as long as oil, gas, and coal are there.

We, however, cannot do this individually. Fortunately, there are a few hundred million young, enthusiastic, energetic, and capable people who are intimately connected with every community we can call on. These are the students at our universities and colleges.

If you are studying media, make a video as a course project to show how the community you come from is thinking about climate and share it. If you are studying technology and science, do the same about how basic or advanced technology is being used. Whatever your subject, it is relevant to the choices the community you come from makes.

The rest of us need to take time out to consider our choices. Spend a Lazy Sunday Afternoon with friends to think about that.

It is up to us. President Trump withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement and the COP conferences grandstanding over $100 billion show we cannot leave it to governments or businesses.

We need to give a global mandate for Transformational Ownership. A billion people and a trillion dollars in pledges will do. Don’t ask if this is possible to achieve, ask instead if it happened, would you be supporting it.