Climate change is the greatest challenge facing the planet. If we are to reduce climate damaging emissions and halt climate change, we will need an unprecedented group of people pressuring governments, businesses and our own communities to Stop Climate Chaos.
That is why we have joined forces with 17 other campaign groups, including some of the UK's best known organisations, to launch the biggest climate change coalition this country has ever seen. Together we represent millions of supporters, united to demand action on climate change. Five hundred of those volunteers came together today and formed a giant human banner on London's South Bank to mark the launch of this unique new movement.
Roisin Robertson of London took part in the creation of the spiral this morning and compared getting involved stopping climate chaos to her father's participation in WWII. "I've seen it in my own lifetime. When I had children I thought I better take a look around me and see what kind of a world they'd be coming into and I saw that climate change will be a big problem."
Elle Gray and Nicola Waight are students from Portsmouth. They said they were inspired by speakers at the G8 and became aware of the urgency to tackle climate change. Elle said she came out today "Because climate change is the biggest thing that affects us and it will be the end of us all if we don't do everything we can to stop it." Nicola pointed out that there is not much point tackling extreme poverty if people in impoverished countries are going to be wiped out by climate change.
Bruce Watson from London is excited about so many organizations working together. "This campaign could potentially be the biggest thing to stop climate change. It is about time something on this scale has come together with all of these organizations combining forces."
The volunteers who came out today are just the beginning of action to stop climate change that will spiral. Stop Climate Chaos will mobilise its millions of supporters to put pressure on the government, whose plans to tackle climate change fall far short of what's needed. The new coalition wants the government to slash the UK's global warming gas emissions and make fighting climate change a key part of its plans to deal with global poverty.
The National Federation of Women's Institutes, RSPB, Oxfam, Christian Aid, WWF, CAFOD, Friends of the Earth, People & Planet and Tearfund are just some of the groups already committed to the new movement, with many others set to join. The coalition will use its huge base of support to campaign against government failings while mobilising public support for government initiatives that reduce the huge levels of CO2 being emitted.
Ashok Sinha, Director of Stop Climate Chaos, this morning hailed the birth of the new movement: "We're facing a catastrophe, with hundreds of millions of people at risk from severe drought, starvation and disease, and by the middle of the century up to one third of land-based species may face extinction. The time has come to respond with the utmost urgency. The organisations that have come together today are supported by millions of people who will be called upon to demand the steps that must be taken right now."
Greenpeace Executive Director Stephen Tindale was also a part of the human banner. "With a threat this serious we had to join forces and start speaking with one single powerful voice. When the government does something good we'll be there to back it up, but when it fails we'll be making noise with millions of supporters behind us. Climate change should be an electoral issue like schools, hospitals and terrorism, and that's what we aim to make it."
Stop Climate Chaos is campaigning for:
- The UK government to deliver substantial annual reductions in UK greenhouse gas emissions, meet its target of cutting CO2 emissions by 20% by 2010 and to commit to an EU-wide greenhouse gas reduction target of 30% by 2020.
The UK government to make climate change a top international priority so that global warming is capped at a temperature rise of less than 2ﾰC above pre-industrial levels. This will require global emissions to have peaked and be irreversibly declining by 2015.
The UK government to ensure that its policies on combating global poverty include investing in low carbon technologies and clean energy and providing significantly more assistance to the developing world to adapt to climate change.
Politicians have so far failed to take anything like sufficient action to tackle the threat. The choices made in the next five or 10 years will determine the extent of the devastation faced by future generations. With coordinated action and the mobilisation of its massive supporter base Stop Climate Chaos aims to become a potent political force for action.
