8th February 2010

Newsletter 8th February 2010

Climate Emergency 2010 Planning Meeting

12pm 20th February, SOAS Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

Please come along to our planning meeting to discuss what the Campaign against Climate Change should achieve in 2010. On the agenda we want your input on…

Where next after Copenhagen?

Building a campaign for emergency climate action in the UK; gaining political traction round a radical climate message

Building the movement, working with other groups

Post-election action/demonstration to challenge the new government to take emergency action on climate change

How can we best use the Climate Emergency EDM?

(see below and at http://www.campaigncc.org/climateemergencyedm)

Planning meeting will be followed by the Campaign against Climate Change AGM, all welcome to stick around.

Please help us spread the word, download and distribute our Climate Emergency Planning Meeting flier here: http://www.campaigncc.org/sites/www.campaigncc.org/files/planningmeetingflier.pdf

Get Your MP to Support the Climate Emergency EDM (189) – Sign our Petition!

The Climate Emergency EDM calls for concrete demands for action on climate that includes the main “emergency demands” of the campaign - 10% cuts by end 2010, a million climate jobs, banning domestic flights, a 55 mph speed limit and more.

The Climate Emergency EDM was tabled as EDM 2057 by Colin Challen MP in October 2009 and was signed by 45 MPs. It has since been retabled as EDM 189 which (as of today) has been signed by 32 MPs, including 17 who hadn’t signed it before as EDM 2057 – making 62 MPs who have signed (at one stage or another) this very radical statement calling for action on climate. We want to both push as many MPs as we can to sign it and make sure the public knows about it: for this we need your help.

What you can do

Find out who your local MP is and write and ask them to sign. Need help with a letter? Use our model one here.
Sign our petition here: http://www.campaigncc.org/edmpetition
Meet your MP face to face and ask him/her to sign. Ring the House of Commons on 020 7219 3000, get the contact details for your MP and book an appointment to meet at their surgery.
Use the EDM as an excuse to write to your local paper. Congratulate your MP if they signed, (see model letter here) or if they haven’t, say how great it would be if they did and mention how many MPs already have.
If your MP hasn’t signed you can also build support for the EDM in your community, or order postcards from info@campaigncc.org and distribute for your community to send to your MP, or organise a small demo at their surgery calling for their signature on the EDM.

Read the full EDM text and sign the petition here http://www.campaigncc.org/edmpetition

Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union Conference 2010

13th March, South Camden Community School, London NW1

The Campaign against Climate Change’s third Trade Union Conference will take place in Camden on Saturday 13th March from 11:00am until 4:30pm. With little commitment from Government to create green jobs post Copenhagen and in economic climate putting pressure on employment, the Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union group is setting out a framework to push the Government to develop climate jobs and support workers.

Previous conferences have brought together hundreds of Trade Unionists to discuss the role that the Trade Union movement can play in the fight against Climate Change. Speakers for 2010’s CCC Trade Union conference include:

Tony Kearns (CWU), Manuel Cortes (TSSA), Chris Baugh (PCS), Prof. Barbara Harriss-White, Jonathan Neale (Million Green Jobs Commission, CCC), John Stewart (Airportwatch), Graham Petersen (UCU), and Larry Lohman (Cornerhouse).

The failure to agree a serious strategy for dealing with climate change at the Copenhagen Climate Conference underlines this problem, and why the CCC Trade Union group will push the Government to employ a million unemployed workers to save the climate.

Registration £10 for workers, or £5 low-paid or unemployed

Download registration form here http://www.campaigncc.org/tuconference2010

Or pay at the door. Doors open at 11:00am.

About the Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union Group

The Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union (CCCTU) group aims to get trade unionists involved in action on climate change. With major support from several major trade unions including CWU, TSSA, UCU and PCS, the CCCTU group brings together unions from around the UK to push the government to create jobs to tackle climate change.

The outcome of the 2009 CCCTU conference was to start a serious fight for green jobs. Currently there are 2.5 million people unemployed in the UK likely to rise to 3million plus by the end of 2010. The CCCTU is calling on the government to create 1 million new climate jobs, not green jobs but jobs that cut down the amount of greenhouse gases in the air. These jobs are to be new jobs, not existing re-packaged as climate jobs, in alternative energy, for workers skilled in building insulation and efficiency, and workers providing cheap and ubiquitous low carbon public transport. The CCCTU group has produced a booklet outlining how the Government can create 1 million new climate jobs. To order a copy of the booklet, or to find out more about the Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union group please visit their website: http://cacctu.wordpress.com/ .

Other Events around the UK

Encourage your council to go green cutting your carbon footprint with Greenpeace

www.greenpeace.org.uk/efficiencity/councils

End subsidies for palm oil in the UK, send FOE letter to Ed Milliband

http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/biodiversity/press_for_change/palm_oil_subsidies_22636.html

10:10 Campaign each month suggesting ways to cut your carbon!

http://www.1010uk.org/1010/themes_home

Climate change in the news – UK

A survey shows scepticism about climate change has risen in the UK - only 26% of those asked believed climate change was happening and "now established as largely man-made". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8500443.stm

The Independent reports how ExxonMobil is funding think-tanks to undermine climate science. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/thinktanks-take-oil-money-and-use-it-to-fund-climate-deniers-1891747.html

The latest figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change show carbon dioxide output has fallen by just 10 per cent since 1990 and 3 per cent since Labour came to power in 1997. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7139332/Government-misses-climate-change-target.html

Official greenhouse gas emissions for the UK fell nearly two per cent during 2008, because of the recession http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2257173/falling-uk-emissions-example

In 2008/09 only a fifth of biofuels used in the UK qualified as sustainable and the origin of another fifth was completely unknown. http://blog.businessgreen.com/2010/01/there-is-no-opt.html

The climate scientist at centre of email row defends his research in The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/02/phil-jones-climate-scientist-hacked-email

Greenhouse gases used in supermarket fridges and freezers pose as great a threat to the environment as plastic bags, according to a study by campaigning group the Environmental Investigation Agency. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/feb/01/supermarket-fridges-pollution

The Environmental Audit Committee has urged the government to increase carbon reduction target. http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/environmental_audit_committee/eacpn110110.cfm

Climate change in the news - International

Under the Copenhagen Accord, 55 countries have formally pledged to cut or limit their emissions. However the pledges are much less than what is required to keep warming below 2 degrees. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/02/55-countries-greenhouse-emissions-pledge

Experts are sceptical about the prospects for a global deal on climate change in 2010. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/01/climate-change-deal-impossible-2010

The White House has announced a target to cut federal greenhouse gas emissions 28 per cent by 2020 http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2257061/obama-steps-climate-push

China's most senior negotiator on climate change says more research needed to establish whether warming is man-made http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2256648/climate-change-chinese-adviser