At the end of 2006 Greenpeace joined other environmental and campaigning groups to push for government action on climate change - under the name of the I Count campaign. At the time, the reality of global warming was only just being accepted by mainstream politicians, but through Stop Climate Chaos' I Count campaign thousands of us lobbied our MPs and helped to persuade many of them that the situation was serious and that genuine action was needed. Last month the positive results of all that effort were seen when a much beefed-up Climate Bill was passed by Parliament.
All of us who took part in I Count can be proud of our contribution to three major victories in the climate change debate, which have now been incorporated into the Bill.
- A target of 80 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050
- Yearly targets for emissions reductions
- Aviation and shipping will now be included in the emissions targets
New climate change secretary Ed Miliband recognised the importance of the campaign and your support in his speech introducing the third reading of the Bill:
"I pay tribute to the scientists who detected the problem, the campaigners who fought to bring it to public attention, the green movement that mobilised for change, and above all, the members of the public who wrote to us in record numbers, asking for a Bill that met the scale of the challenge."
It was an important victory, and showed what can be achieved when campaigning groups focus on a common cause. I Count as such has now been retired, having achieved its objectives, but the work of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition continues. Next up? Well that would be pushing to make UK energy policy clean and green, and campaigning for a global climate deal (at next year's vital Copenhagen summit) that will protect the world's most vulnerable people and ecosystems.
So (as you already knew) there's still a lot of work to be done. We'll need to keep the heat on government by continuing to campaign for clean green renewable energy. The more of us that make the demand, the bigger the impact we'll have.
So please visit Stop Climate Chaos again soon (after giving yourself a pat on the back and taking at least five minutes off for a quick breather) and see how you can help with the next phase of the campaign. Your I Count login will still work (that's assuming you can remember it) and the SCC team are currently working hard to build more cool and useful tools for you to use.
In the meantime, here's a date for your diaries; at 12 noon on Saturday 6th December 2008, the National Climate March will leave from Speaker's Corner, Hyde Park and march through to Parliament Square (map). Come along if you can and help keep up the pressure to Stop Climate Chaos.
