ROAD TO COPENHAGEN & THE 12:18 CAMPIGN

“It’s great that people in Stafford, throughout the UK and around the world are today contacting their politicians to urge them to secure a comprehensive deal to combat climate change at Copenhagen in December”.

So says Stafford’s MP David Kidney who went to Stafford’s Market Square today to thank environmental campaigners personally for their efforts. The MP stresses the importance of securing a global agreement between over 180 countries’ governments:

“A child born today could find at 50 that temperatures have risen by over 2 degrees Celsius, causing dangerous damage to our weather, sea levels, food supplies and the existence of many species of animal and plant. In developing countries, changes like these will bite much harder and political instability will be an added challenge for future world leaders.

“There is still time to avoid the worst excesses of this climate change but only if the world’s human population takes effective and urgent action now. This is what the talks in Copenhagen are about. A prize well worth fighting for at those talks is a clean and green world and future jobs in a low-carbon economy.

“The UK Government has published its approach to the talks in advance. We published “The Road to Copenhagen” in June. We set out our aim of securing an agreement that is ambitious, effective and fair. Ambitious in taking action to avert a temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius. Effective in making sure that countries keep to their promises. And fair in sharing the burden according to past emissions and ability to pay for the actions that are needed.

“We can succeed. It will take protection of forests and planting new ones. It will require widespread application of green technologies like more renewable energy generation. It will take action by every government, every community, every household and every individual. This is make or break time for our planet. It is understandable that some people feel very strongly that more must be done. We must listen to the science, take concerted action and make the transition to a low-carbon future.”

In the forthcoming months there will be a season on films on climate change shown by the Environmental groups in Stafford. There will also be an action day on 24th October. If you want to find out more about climate change and why it matters these are all useful.

President Obama's speech on Copenhagen places the work being done here in an international context.  http://twurl.nl/h10pix

 This link takes you to clash mob events throughout the world http://www.avaaz.org/en/sept21_hub/