CO2 forcing on temp & sea level change is slow. The equilibrium will mean his statements are correct.
But it’s our children’s children’s problem to deal with eh?
Unfortunately the reality will be that yes it will be our children's, their children's and their children's children's problem regardless of how much change we effect immediately, as I stated before I expect that even if we were able to eliminate global carbon emissions with immediate effect the geological timescales involved would mean that they would still bear the impact of our actions.
I am not advocating inaction in anyway, I am merely stating that each of us has a role to play and that our role is only minor and cannot have a direct impact unless it forms part of a collective effort.
For a real world example
Scenario 1. I have a family, each of us has a car, we have built and sold several new houses over the last ten years, we don't travel often and we rarely fly. We recycle, use energy efficient lighting and are active in reducing our energy consumption.
Scenario 2. Poodle has no dependents, no car and purchased an existing house, he flys several times a year and does the same things regarding recycling and energy consumption. As he is single his household energy consumption is less although as he is the only person occupying his house his individual consumption would be higher perhaps.
Lets say that after an indepth analysis our individual carbon footprints are identical, should he stop flying just because it's selfish, if each of us is trying to actively meet our arbitrary -8% target then does it matter how we achieve it and if each of us is meeting this target then are we somehow obligated to do even more?