Naomi Klein's speech should strengthen the hand of Labour Party ecosocialists

Naomi Klein's speech at the Labour Party Conference was well received yesterday and should strengthen the hand of those members who want to see the party take a stronger line on challenging climate change.

Her praise of Corbyn's Labour Party was a little OTT at times but it also contained ecosocialist themes that reflect the position of Green Left (the ecosocialist current in the Green Party) and could build links between the two parties.

Progress as TUC takes on the issue of Climate Change

The TUC has unanimously passed the motion below on Climate Change. Although it does not contain everything Green Party members would want to see included it marks a step forward in trade union recognition of the issue. It is now even more important for the Green Party at national and local level to work closely with trade unions and local trades councils on practical policies to combat climate change and the promotion of a low carbon economy.

Congress notes the irrefutable evidence that dangerous climate change is driving unprecedented changes to our environment such as the devastating flooding witnessed in the UK in 2004.

Congress further notes the risk to meeting the challenge of climate change with the announcement of Donald Trump to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Agreement.

Similarly, Brexit negotiations and incoherent UK government policy risk undermining measures to achieve the UK carbon reduction targets.

Congress welcomes the report by the Transnational Institute Reclaiming Public Service: how cities and citizens are turning back privatization, which details the global trend to remunicipalise public services, including energy, and supports efforts by unions internationally to raise issues such as public ownership and democratic control as part of solutions to climate change.

Congress notes that transport is responsible for a quarter of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions and believes that a reduction in carbon dioxide levels must be the basis of the UK’s future transport policy in addition to building public transport capacity and moving more freight from road to rail.

Congress believes that to effectively combat climate change and move towards a low carbon economy we cannot leave this to the markets and therefore need a strong role for the public sector in driving the measures needed to undertake this transition.

Congress notes that pension schemes invest billions of pounds into fossil fuel corporations. To this end, Congress calls on the TUC to:

i.                     work with the Labour Party and others that advocate for an end to the UK’s rigged energy system to bring it back into public ownership and democratic control

ii.                   . advocate for a mass programme of retrofit and insulation of Britain’s homes and public buildings

iii.                  . lobby to demand rights for workplace environmental reps iv. lobby for the establishment of a Just Transition strategy for those workers affected by the industrial changes necessary to develop a more environmentally sustainable future for all, and develop practical steps needed to achieve this as integral to industrial strategy v. consult with all affiliates to seek input into the development of a cross sector industrial strategy that works towards delivering internationally agreed carbon emission reduction targets

iv.                 . investigate the long-term risks for pension funds investing in fossil fuels, promote divestment, and alternative reinvestment in the sustainable economy.

Mover: Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union

Seconder: Communication Workers Union

Supporters: Fire Brigades Union; ASLEF; TSSA

Crunch time: 5 reasons to vote Green in #GE2017

This unofficial video by Green Party member Ousman Noor throws out a challenge to voters - 5 reasons to vote Green in the General Election.

Flash Rally tomorrow to put Environment on the GE2017 Agenda

The environment has been ignored in the General Election campaign so far. 

With 2016 the hottest year on record and Britain facing an air pollution crisis, the Green Party has decided enough it enough. 

We want to know: 'Where is the environment?'

Caroline Lucas, Green Party co-leader, will stage an emergency intervention into the General Election campaign to highlight how the environment has been ignored in the national debate - with no mention in the debates and glossed over in the other parties' manifestos.

The Green Party wants to put the environment back on the political agenda. 

Lucas and Green Party campaigners will visit Labour HQ and 10 Downing Street with a giant Green question mark, asking Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May: “Where is the environment?”. 

The question mark will then be taken to Parliament Square where Lucas will give a speech about the importance of the environment.
Join us to make our message heard!

Tuesday 30 May 2017, at 10.30am (please arrive by 10.25) at Labour Headquarters: Southside, 105 Victoria Street, SW1E 6QT.

Climate Change: Top Ten Election demands from the Greener Jobs Alliance

The Steering Committee of the Greener Jobs Alliance has put forward these 10 election demands to ensure that climate change should be central to the General Election campaign.

1.     Keep the Climate Change Act 2008. Stick to the UK’s legally binding commitments to cut harmful greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 as a minimum. Ensure that UK energy and industrial policy is effectively aligned with the Committee on Climate Change projections and carbon budgets.

2.     Trust the people with a massive boost to energy democracy. Support a new wave of community based solar and onshore wind projects with ambitious feed-in tariffs wherever there is local support. Lift the ban on onshore wind projects. Support for local authorities to set up municipal energy supply companies.

3.     Ban fracking and respect local democracy wherever fracking applications are opposed by local communities.

4.     Cut energy bills and carbon emissions with a nationwide home insulation programme. ‘Retrofit’poorly insulated homes and build new, low energy social housing, using as far as possible direct labour, and supported by high quality vocational education and training. Make ‘Energy efficiency’ a national infrastructure priority to create decent jobs, reduce fuel poverty and reduce fuel bills.

5.     Make education for sustainable development a core priority across the education system. Prioritise research funding that will promote the implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

6.     Create a million skilled climate jobs: invest in all forms of renewable energy, low carbon jobs and skills, including electric vehicle manufacture, rail investment, and build a full supply chain to make and supply renewable energy technologies in the UK.

7.     Create a new Green Investment Bank in public ownership and with full accountability. Use the green bank to support Regional Development Board investment in green energy and transport infrastructure projects.

8.     Create a National Climate Service to oversee the transition to a low carbon economy This to include a Ministry for Climate Jobs, Skills and Social Protection’ to equip the UK to a transformation of the world of work working across all Government departments and industrial sectors.

9.     Introduce an Environment Protection Act to incorporate vital European directives into UK law. Commit the UK to retain membership of the European Court of Justice to ensure that our citizens have the same environmental protection rights as all EU citizens, wherever environmental standards are at risk.

10. Introduce a Clean Air Act to tackle air pollution once and for all. Place a clear legal responsibility on employers and businesses to address air quality and develop a network of low emission zones in pollution hot spots.

Declaration of interest: I am a member of the Greener Jobs Alliance

Friends of the Earth chief says environment must not be ignored in General Election

From i-newsonline by Craig Bennett, head of Friends of the Earth LINK

The General Election starting pistol’s been fired and the coming weeks are set to be dominated by Brexit and issues like the NHS, education and our economic well-being.

Let’s not kid ourselves – it’s unlikely that most political parties will put the environment centre-stage in their campaigns. It will take hard work by concerned members of the public and green groups to focus their attention.

But our environment is crucially important for us all.

Air pollution puts strain on NHS

The reality is we’ll struggle to solve the crisis in our NHS while 40,000 people die prematurely every year thanks to the UK’s appalling air pollution. Children, with their developing lungs, are particularly impacted.

Our poorly-insulated, heat-leaking homes account for thousands more deaths annually too.

Our economy is continually burdened by the billions of pounds of subsidies tax-payers hand-over to support dirty fossil fuels and the nuclear industry.

And then there’s climate change. The alarm bells may be tolling, but were still failing to take serious action to deal with an issue that threatens catastrophic harm to both people and our economy.

Severe droughts lead to famine.

Just last month the World Meteorological Office said climate change in 2016 contributed to extreme weather events, including severe droughts that have brought hunger to millions of people in southern and eastern Africa and Central America.

It pointed out that Hurricane Matthew caused widespread suffering in Haiti as the first category 4 storm to make landfall since 1963. Heavy rains and floods affected eastern and southern Asia. Hundreds of people died and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced due to these events.

Six months ago the Living Planet Index showed that global populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles declined by 58 per cent between 1970 and 2012 and that the decline is continuing.

This decline in nature threatens the stability of the ecosystems that we rely on for fresh water, food and other so-called ecosystem services. In our own country our bee populations are declining due to factors such as pesticide-use and disappearing habitats.

Politicians must wake up to the fact that they can’t promise a better future for the UK without properly engaging on these environmental issues. They can’t promise a better future for today’s children and the next generation without committing to urgent local, national and international efforts to address biodiversity loss, climate change and air pollution.

British people want stronger regulations

The British public overwhelmingly want stronger environmental protections. An opinion poll we commissioned by YouGov last summer revealed:

· 83% said Britain should pass laws providing a higher or the same level of protection for wild areas and wildlife species than current EU laws. Only 4% want lower protection.

· 81% want to keep an EU ban on neonicotinoid pesticides that have been found to pose a threat to bees – with only 5% saying it should end.

· 57% said British farming subsidies should put either more or the same emphasis on environmental protection than the current EU subsidies do. Only 7% wanted less emphasis on protecting the environment.

The next six weeks are likely to set the direction of travel for the UK for at least the next five years.

Will the UK maintain the rules and regulations that protect our green and pleasant land and have enabled us to claim global leadership on shared environmental problems? Or will short-term profit win out?

Will our local, national and international environment get better, year on year, with cleaner air, less carbon pollution and more nature? Or will it start to decline?

During the General Election Campaign we must make sure our environment is not ignored. We need every prospective MP to engage with this issue and pledge that the UK will play its role in an urgent global efforts to ensure the next generation will enjoy an environment that’s getting better: a safer climate, flourishing nature, and healthy air, water and food. We can’t afford to let these issues be side-lined.

'Bridges Not Walls' - some of the banners dropped across London this morning

'Bridges Not Walls' banners were dropped from bridges in London and the rest of the UK and internationally to make Donald Trump's inauguration:

Embed from Getty Images

Climate Refugees, Climate Crisis & Population Displacement - February 11th

LATEST: Global warming near 1.5 degrees in 2016 - warmest on record

 From Copernicus Climate Change Service LINK

The first global analysis of the whole of 2016 has confirmed last year as the warmest on record and saw the planet near a 1.5°Cwarming, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). 

The latest figures from C3S, part of the EU's Copernicus earth observation programme, LINK show that 2016's global temperature exceeded 14.8°C, and was around 1.3°C higher than typical for the middle years of the 18th century. 2016 was close to 0.2°C warmer than 2015, which was previously the warmest year on record.

Countries agreed in Paris in 2015 to holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.

A more dangerous climate 

Global warming increases the likelihood of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, droughts and floods. Future warming could cause billions of euro of damage each year and affect the availability of fresh water and crop yields in the most vulnerable countries.

Director of ECMWF's Copernicus Services Juan Garcés de Marcilla said:

We are already seeing around the globe the impacts of a changing climate. Land and sea temperatures are rising along with sea-levels, while the world's sea-ice extent, glacier volume and snow cover are decreasing; rainfall patterns are changing and climate-related extremes such as heatwaves, floods and droughts are increasing in frequency and intensity for many regions. The future impact of climate change will depend on the effort we make now, in part achieved by better sharing of climate knowledge and information. 

To help decision-makers develop effective adaptation and mitigation solutions we make the data from Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) freely and openly available. By mainstreaming the information that the Copernicus Services hold into climate policy and strategy, governments, the private sector and society can identify and unite around opportunities to tackle further climate change and reduce vulnerability where its effects are unavoidable.

C3S found that global temperatures in February 2016 already touched the 1.5°C limit, though under the influence of a strong El Niño, an intermittent event involving a period of warming. Global temperatures still remained well above average in the second half of 2016, associated partly with exceptionally low sea-ice cover in both the Arctic and Antarctic.

C3S found that most regions around the world experienced above-average temperatures during 2016. The largest differences in regional average temperatures were found in the Arctic but conditions were also extreme over southern Africa early in the year, over southern and south-eastern Asia prior to the summer monsoon, over the Middle East later in summer, and over parts of North America in summer and autumn.

In addition to record temperatures, ECMWF's Copernicus Services monitored other extremes occurring in 2016, including significant global wildfires and the growth of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Destructive fires were observed around Fort McMurray, Canada in May and then extensive wildfires across Siberia, associated with the year's high surface temperatures, during June and July.

For the first year CO₂ levels did not return below 400 ppm as summer turned to autumn in the Northern Hemisphere. In previous years, take-up of CO₂ by vegetation during the summer growing season has typically seen September mark the lowest point for CO₂levels.

Note on data

Copernicus temperature data are based on millions of diverse daily measurements analysed by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) using methods developed for weather forecasting.

Annual global temperature variations derived from Copernicus data and from other widely used sets of data typically agree to better than 0.1°C for recent years. The spread in values is likely to be larger than 0.1°C for 2016 due to differences in the extent to which datasets represent the warm conditions associated with exceptionally low sea-ice cover.

The estimate used here is that the climatological average temperature around the start of the Industrial Revolution is estimated to have been 0.7°C lower than that for 1981-2010.

Ken Montague: 'He made the seemingly impossible happen...and without fuss'

Tributes to Ken Montague from Campaign Against Climate Change

We are deeply saddened at the death of our friend and great climate campaigner and socialist, Ken Montague, who passed away last Friday.

Ken was secretary of the Campaign Against Climate Change trade union group and a member of CACC steering group for many years. During that time Ken played an invaluable role in developing the work of the trade union group and especially the One Million Climate jobs report and campaign.

Ken's work was unseen and often unsung but without it much of what the CACC trade union group have done in the last few years would not have happened. Ken's work allowed the trade union group to campaign increasingly effectively within the wider trade union movement, to develop a deeper understanding of the climate crisis, its relevance to the struggle of working people and to counter the false narrative that jobs and the environment are mutually exclusive.

Ken had so many skills that he put to use in the climate campaigning work which he prioritised in the final years of a lifetime of campaigning for a better world. Most especially Ken was a great organiser, he made the seemingly impossible happen and always without any great fuss.

One of his greatest feats was the organisation of the climate jobs caravan which involved organising two low emissions vehicles and the co-ordination of many, many people and events across the UK. The two week long event was hugely creative and successful. Arriving in towns and cities with a visible display of the campaign on the sides of the two vehicles, the tour was able to put the case for trade union campaigning on climate and for climate jobs in towns and cities across the country. It was a huge logistical operation, the bulk of the work carried humbly, as usual by Ken and was a testament to Ken's organisation, perseverance and equanimity.

Ken was also a great negotiator of situations and especially people. He had insight and empathy into individuals, their concerns and complexities. He used this regularly to great effect to help progress work in which there were conflicting views about how to take things forward. Ken didn't slide over differences of opinion but he always looked for ways through which encouraged understanding between people and more often than not a solution.

Such skills were last employed in one of Ken's last successful achievements before the news of his illness which was the organising of the first official fringe meeting for the CACC trade union group at this year’s TUC conference.

This time last year Ken was in Paris alongside 10,000s of climate activists from across the world, demonstrating for climate justice, despite a ban imposed by the French government. Many of us have wonderful memories of Ken from this time and the meetings and protests that he took part in. Coming out of Paris, Ken shared an optimism and determination, alongside others, about the growing climate movement and the necessity of an even more effective movement able to make connections and alliances in order to deliver the changes needed to tackle climate change.

It was as a result of the meetings and discussions that Ken had in Paris that he proposed to the CACC trade union groups the idea of a conference on climate change and refugees. Ken took the initial steps of setting this up, putting in place, despite as ever many logistical obstacles, the key organising group, speakers and venue in the months after his proposal. This important conference will take place next year on February 11th.

When Ken informed us only weeks ago that he was ill with cancer and his illness was terminal we all hoped that Ken would be able to be with us for this very important conference he had initiated. Unfortunately, Ken will not be there. But the conference should be and will be a huge testament to the work that Ken did and the immeasurable contribution Ken made to fighting for an equal, just and sustainable world.

We will all miss him greatly. He leaves an enormous gap which we will find hard to fill. We will miss his hard work, determination and positive outlook. We send our deepest condolences to Ken's family - his partner Janet and children Brendan, Kate and Alex, who have lost Ken far too young.

Suzanne Jeffery - Chair

On behalf of CACC steering group and CACC trade union group



Ken Montague died on Friday. When we heard the news, Nancy said, ‘How incredibly sad. He was so very nice.’

‘Yes’ I said, ‘He was nice. It’s incredibly sad.'

It stood out. Ken was nice because he was such a good man. He was kind. When people talked, he listened. He sympathised.

Another way he was good was in his dedication. He was a dogged, determined man, but not harsh. Ken was a trade unionist all his life. He was the secretary of Brent Trades Council during the Grunwick dispute, and secretary of his further education teachers branch for many years. He was a loyal member of the International Socialists, and then the Socialist Workers Party.

In his sixties Ken dedicated himself to climate activism. For the last several years he was secretary of the trade union group of the Campaign against Climate Change. It would be wrong to say Ken worked tirelessly, because he got tired. But he kept on working.

There was a thing that happened over and over at our meetings. We would be going through the agenda, generating jobs that needed doing. Then there would be a silence while none of us volunteered. Someone would suggest that Ken do it. Ken would nod. Someone else would say that we had already asked Ken to do too much, and other people would nod. But then another person would say, but Ken will actually do it. And heads would nod. Ken would say, I’ll do it, because he knew it needed doing. And also, he knew that actual human labour was what changed the world.

He did it because he cared. To listen to him talking about the planet, or socialism, or trade unionism, was to see someone putting his whole body, a whole world of emotion, into what he was saying. There was something about his shoulders, and the way he leaned forward. But he was never loud. Ken was passionate and gentle.

People said Ken was modest, but the word isn’t quite right. He was humble, really. He thought humble people should rule the earth. I think the way he saw it was, he was doing what he could. He held our one million climate jobs campaign together. He organised all our conferences. He talked to people. He put his heart into organising for a climate jobs presence at the Paris climate talks in 2015.
He never claimed credit, never pushed himself forward as a speaker. In fact he was shy about
speaking. But we started asking Ken to speak all round the country about climate jobs. I asked people how he was a speaker, and they said wonderful. Then I listened carefully as he spoke a few times. Ken was not showy. He was not loud, though everyone in the room could hear him. There were no rhetorical flourishes. What he did, I began to realise, was that he explained the situation we found ourselves in and what we had to do about it. And he explained it so clearly that everyone in the room could understand. I realised I was listening to an experienced, and very good, teacher.

I think that was at the core of Ken’s humility, his goodness and his dedication. Always it was for the other person. He wanted people to understand, so we could do something.

Ken was my friend, too, and I’m proud of that. After they found the cancer he died so much faster than anyone expected. Our thoughts are with his partner, Janet, and his children, Brendan, Kate and Alex.

Jonathan Neale

Ken Montague: an appreciation

Ken Montague, a well known and respected local Brent activist who had recently moved to Brighton, died on Friday not quite a month after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

In perhaps his last email to friends and comrades after the diagnosis Ken finished by saying, 'Please pass on the word to those that need to know and say that I am relying on you to keep up the fight for better and more sustainable world. My only regret is that I'm bailing out so early. In comradeship, Ken'

I have offered to host tributes on Wembley Matters and begin with this from his colleagues in the University and College Union:

We regret to announce the death of Ken Montague, known to many of us as a socialist, climate change activist and member of the UCU London Retired Members branch. His contribution will be sorely missed. We send our condolences to his comrades, friends and family.

Merilyn Moos, vice chair of the retired members branch, who knew Ken for many years, has written this obituary.

I knew Ken as a comrade and friend from when we were in our early 20s. His sudden death, at 70, is a terrible blow, politically and personally.

Ken became an FE lecturer, first in what was then Kilburn Polytechnic (where I taught), then at Barnet. Before he retired, he did some part-time teaching at Middlesex. His main area was literature but he was deeply involved in Media Studies. His students loved him, especially those he took on annual pilgrimages to Cannes so that they could witness the iniquities but also the ‘alternative reality’ of the film industry for themselves. He was the Branch Secretary for what I suspect he felt was far too long, fighting the college management’s petty vindictiveness as well as the grander issues of conditions and pay. One of the crucial (and ultimately successful) campaigns he was crucially involved in was for the reinstatement of John Fernandes, a black lecturer at the College of North West London who was being dismissed for revealing the racist content of essays by police cadets whom he taught.

He was a member of IS, (International Socialists) then SW (Socialist Workers Party), an organisation which, with a couple of outs and ins, he remained a member of for all his life. He was passionate about his politics but never became a hack nor did he become bureaucratically compromised, retaining a fundamental commitment to grassroots struggle all his life.

The first massive class struggle I remember him in was at Grunwicks. He was the Secretary of Barnet Trades Council at the time and was on the Grunwick strike committee. From the beginning he stressed the importance, especially given the concealed racism, of solidarity between white, male, manual workers and Asian women and was vociferous in demanding, mass pickets to shut down Grunwick. As Ken wrote in SW: ’There was lots of talk of support from the top of the unions but it was mostly just talk.’ Indeed, as I remember vividly the turning point in the dispute came when, after a few weeks of mass pickets, the TUC (in the figure of Jack Dromey, then of Brent Trades Council, and indeed, Scargill,) marched us away from the gates. Ken would not have been in agreement with that.

 
Ken continued to be active, campaigning for example for the Respect candidate in Brent in a number of elections. But his next major and long-term involvement was over climate change, which, in recent years, including campaigning against fracking. He emphasised throughout the importance of trade union support and organisation. He was instrumental in setting up the Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union Group (CACCTU) and became its Secretary. He took a leading part in organising and promulgating the influential ‘One Million Climate Jobs’ booklet and campaign, both in Britain and internationally (supported by Jeremy Corbyn though one wouldn’t know it).

Last year he attended the Paris Climate talks as part of the Global Climate Jobs movement. Global Climate Jobs is the network of all the national climate campaigns, which he was instrumental in setting up. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) held an alternative summit in Paris, attended by approx 40 climate jobs activists from 20 countries, which launched a Global Climate Jobs campaign. Ken always emphasised the crucial role of trade unions.

As he wrote afterwards about Paris:

It is clear that the leaders of all the countries in the world have failed us. They did so because nowhere did we have the political and social power to make them take decisive action on climate… We have to mobilise... After all, we need cuts of 80% in global emissions, as soon as possible.

We have to fight to leave the coal, gas and oil in the soil, he said. So we need to replace fossil fuels almost entirely with renewable energy. Ken could always be found doing the organising, writing and distributing the leaflets, speaking at meetings and rallies (which he didn’t enjoy), making the contacts, arguing with rank and file trade unionists - but never claiming the lime light.

The last event he was organising was the Conference Climate Refugees, The Climate Crisis & Population Displacement. Building A Trade Union & Civil Society Response (to be held on Saturday 11 February 10pm - 5pm, NUT, Hamilton House) Let’s support it.

Ken died too young and we shall all miss him.

Pete Murry, fellow UCU member and Brent Green Party and London Green Party TU Liaision Offcer, Secretary of Green Left wrote: 

For much of his life Ken lived in Cricklewood and was active in many local campaigns against, council and goverment cuts, against racism and against war. He was the founder and backbone of the Brent Campaign Against Climate Change and a key organiser in Campaign Against Climate Change nationally and its Trade Union group. It was an honour to have worked with him on these campaigns and as a fellow UCU member.

Greens celebrate nana anti-fracking victory by giving her lifetime membership

The Green Party has celebrated the dismissal of the case against Anti-Fracking Nana Tina Rothery today as a victory for the future of peaceful protest.

Rothery, a 54-year-old grandmother, could have become the first ever climate change protestor to go to prison when she appeared at The Law Courts in Preston today (Friday 9 December 2016).
Rothery was taken to court by fracking firm Cuadrilla for trespass after she staged a peaceful protest in a field near Blackpool which was under consideration as a fracking exploration site.

She was ordered to pay the firm’s legal bills which stood at more than £55,000, and could have faced 14 days in jail for refusing to pay. But today a judge dismissed the case against her.

The Green Party has given Rothery lifetime membership in support of her fight against shale gas exploration in Lancashire.

Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party, said:

Today marks a great victory for everyone who believes in the right to peaceful protest and the fight against climate change. It would have been utterly unjust to jail Tina Rothery, who has shown exceptional courage protecting her community from the threat of fracking.

It is an honour to give Tina lifetime Green Party membership in recognition of her bravery in the fight to protect our planet.

Amelia Womack, deputy leader of the Green Party, said:

We say today that companies targeting individuals will meet ever stronger opposition. Fracking completely undermines the international climate commitments to limit warming to 2 degrees as made under the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

If we are to stop climate chaos, there can be no new dirty fossil fuel infrastructure. No pipelines. No mines. No fracking.

Friends of the Earth International ally themselves with US resistance to Trump

Friends of the Earth International have just issued the following unusually strong statement from their meeting In Lampung, Indonesia:

We, Friends of the Earth International, the largest federation of grassroots environmental justice organizations from 75 countries, gathered at our Biennial General Meeting 2016 held in Lampung, Indonesia, resolve to challenge, reject and resist the perverse and offensive policies and inflammatory rhetoric of Donald Trump. The election of Donald Trump is an affront to our collective vision of a society of interdependent people living in harmony, wholeness and fulfillment based in principles of equity and human rights.

We recognize that the rise of Trump is a manifestation of a deeply troubling global trend of xenophobia, authoritarianism and racism.

We condemn Trump’s bigotry and his statements that have threatened and denigrated women, people of color, immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and the differently abled. His rhetoric has stoked the flames of division, prejudice, hostility and hate; as we witness an increase in hate crimes in the United States, we reaffirm our commitment to create a society built on equity and diversity.

We refuse to legitimize, let alone support, his arbitrary and regressive policy proposals, including those that further deregulate industry, concentrate wealth and political power, eviscerate the social safety net, promote militarism, and erode human and civil rights. Among his most egregious and unconstitutional proposals are plans to deport undocumented immigrants en masse, to construct a southern border wall, and to create a registry for Muslims – all proposals that evoke the darkest days in our collective history, and to which we say, never again. Rooted in our commitment to equity, interdependence and community, we reaffirm our dedication to a society of inclusiveness and care for the most vulnerable, and assert our resistance to totalitarianism and fundamentalism in all its forms.

We express our outrage at his hubris and disdain for environmental protection, particularly with respect to climate change. His climate denialism, and that of his deputies, threatens to undo decades of progress in the U.S. and around the world. Drawing on the power of our grassroots base, and the strength of our global federation, we are fiercely committed to not let one man, nor one country, deny the validity of climate science and the popular will to stop momentum on climate action.

The election of Donald Trump reminds us that for millions of people in the United States there exists a shared experience of neo-liberalism and corporate globalization that has left them disenfranchised and angry. The harshness of this system of dominance has created economic insecurity, rising inequality, social alienation and political marginalization. The response to this experience must not be used to fuel corporate nationalism, xenophobia, racism, misogyny and the further destruction of our planet. 

We remind ourselves that the story of the 2016 U.S. election was not only about Donald Trump, but also the ascension of progressive political values to a level never seen in recent U.S. history. Senator Bernie Sanders, who drew 1.5 million people to rallies across the country, noted that “Election days come and go. But political and social revolutions that attempt to transform our society never end. They continue every day, every week and every month in the fight to create a nation of social and economic justice.”

Be it resolved, Friends of the Earth International expresses our deep solidarity with the growing resistance in the United States which refuses to normalize and legitimize Donald Trump’s inflammatory and irresponsible approach to public policy. We encourage and support positive actions by social movements, civil society groups and governments around the world to resist, discredit, and delegitimize Donald Trump’s odious exercise of power to inflame division and hate, and we encourage instead actions oriented towards building a world of equity, justice and peace.

DEMO FRIDAY EVENING: 'Trump wrecking global climate action' US Embassy 6pm

From Climate Defence

Date: THIS FRIDAY, 18th November
Time: 6:00pm
Location: US Embassy, Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, London, W1A 2LQ. Map HERE

As the UN COP22 climate talks in Marrakesh draw to a close, a new dawn for climate policy is breaking with the election of Donald Trump as the President of the USA.

Environmental campaigners' worst fears look to be justified, as Presdent-elect Trump has already announced the appointment of Myron Ebell, a prominent climate change denier with strong links to the fossil fuel industry, as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Earlier this week, the World Meteorological Organization predicted that 2016 is almost certainly going to be the hottest year on record, surpassing last year's record. Trump has called climate change a "hoax". The disconnect between the climate crisis and those holding power has never been starker. Now only the most wildly optimistic have any hope that the world won't pass 2°C.

This time last year the world's leaders came together in Paris to agree the historic Paris Climate Agreement, which aims to limit the increase in temperature to no more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. It came into earlier at the beginning of the month. America is responsible for almost 20% of global carbon emissions and is the world's highest per capita polluter.

Trump has made it clear that he wants to withdraw from the Paris Agreement as soon as possible and his staff are already looking for ways to do so. There are real fears that this could pave the way for similar moves from other countries looking for a way to appease those with vested interests.

So, join us outside the American Embassy in Mayfair at 6pm on Friday to send a clear message: Trump's climate policies are nothing short of genocidal and will seal the fate of the millions, if not billions of people who are set to lose their lives as the planet warms irreversibly.

Please join and share our Facebook event with all the latest information:
https://www.facebook.com/events/333429317036859

After Paris Agreement ratified by EU bloc, Green MEPs call for united pressure on the UK government

EU Environment Ministers met today  in Brussels and  announced  that the bloc has agreed to ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The UK’s Green MEPs have welcomed the news and are calling on the UK government to now ratify the agreement without delay. The European Parliament is expected to seal the decision in a vote next week. The EU’s ratification must be followed by individual agreement from all member countries.

Jean Lambert, MEP for London, said:

Its good news that all 28 EU member states have agreed to make this move and help the global agreement on climate change enter into force. The timing is important – China and the US are already on board and India says it will sign up this weekend, so the EU’s decision comes not a moment too soon if it is still to be seen as an active force on this vital issue.

With 2016 virtually guaranteed to be the hottest year on record, and new warnings from scientists about the scale of the climate challenge, the action required to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius target in the Paris agreement cannot be underestimated. There is no time to lose. UK taxpayers’ money needs to stop propping up fossil fuel suppliers with eye-watering subsidies and go instead to a clean energy transition and the green jobs that come with it.

Molly Scott Cato, MEP for the South West, and Green Party’s spokesperson on EU relations, said:

The EU has been crucial for the fight against dangerous climate change and has set targets which prevented our government from totally crushing the renewable energy sector. But as we prepare to leave the EU it is a worrying fact that many of those who campaigned to leave and are now steering our course and are deeply sceptical about climate change and not remotely interested in pushing for a renewable energy transition.

So it is critical at this time that climate campaigners, those from the renewable energy sector, progressive politicians; indeed, anyone who cares about a safe and secure future, work together. We need to pile pressure on the government to sign the Paris Agreement without further delay, to stay within the single market which will protect the most important climate and energy targets, and to bring about the transition that will make climate stability a reality.

Keith Taylor, MEP for the South East, and member of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee, said:

Again, the UK is set to follow where the EU leads, with Theresa May announcing her intention to ratify the Paris Agreement ‘sometime before 2017’. Such a loose and lackadaisical commitment demonstrates a failure to understand the importance of the agreement and suggests little intention of honouring it.

With no indication from the government that it intends to drop plans to continue fast-tracking fracking and oil and gas drilling, or reject the ‘airport capacity crisis’ myth and say no to expansion at Gatwick and Heathrow, ratification is empty symbolism. Theresa May can sponsor the development of new fossil fuel reserves and encourage expansion of an aviation industry that already emits more CO2 than 129 countries. Or the Prime Minister can make a genuine commitment to meeting the climate objectives set out in the Paris Agreement. She cannot do both.