Local campaigners join biggest lobby on climate change

NEW local MP, David Warburton, met campaigners from the Somerton & Frome constituency as part of the Speak Up for Climate lobby in Westminster this week.

9,000 people from across the UK descended on Westminster as part of the biggest ever lobby on climate change.  People from every walk of life, from anglers to bee keepers, surfers to doctors, met their MPs to highlight the threat of climate change.

Campaigners from Somerset took the opportunity to urge David Warburton MP to do all he can in this Parliament to promote cleaner, safer power, to ensure the protection of nature and natural resources and to safeguard the poorest nations of the world from the negative effects of climate change.

The campaigners pressed the case for politicians to ensure that world leaders reach a global agreement on climate change this year.

The MP said, “It was wonderful to see so many thousands of people taking part in this important lobby. I enjoyed meeting so many passionate constituents from the South West and it’s a measure of their dedication and the critical nature of this issue that they travelled all the way from Somerset to meet me on Lambeth Bridge!

“This year global leaders will sign new agreements on climate and sustainable development – agreements that will determine what kind of future we’re shaping for the generation.  With cross party support from politicians worldwide, I hope that we’ll see real progress towards a global climate change deal.”

The Climate Coalition aims to encourage politicians to work together across party lines to create a low-carbon infrastructure plan, covering energy and transport and the restoration of nature. This plan aims to include:

• Supporting a fair global climate change agreement that will end carbon pollution from fossil fuels by the middle of the century.

• Making sure the new Sustainable Development Goals agreed in September 2015 respond to the threat of increasing climate change and deliver low-carbon development.

• Ending climate pollution from coal use in the UK by 2023, on the way to phasing out carbon from our power system.

• Making 2 million of the UK’s low-income homes highly efficient by 2020, and all 6 million low-income homes highly efficient by 2025.