Christian Aid Launch New Climate Change Campaign

Christian Aid launches it's new climate change campaign.

Climate changed. Let's get started We've launched a major new campaign to get the UK to cut its carbon emissions by 5% a year. From changing what you do at home and in the workplace to lobbying the government and companies, find out what you can do to make a difference. If we don’t, it’s the world’s poor who
will pay the price.

They are also carrying out a march through britain starting July 14th. It's great to see them getting well and truly on board. And there ambitious targets for a 90% cut in emissions by 2050 are most welcome, from such a conservative yet powerful organisation.

The world’s poor need you: chance to volunteer for historic climate march

Christian Aid is looking for volunteers to join the longest ever protest march in UK history. The charity is scouring churches and communities throughout the UK to look for people who will put their best foot forward for the first ever mass march for climate justice this summer.

Hundreds of marchers are needed to join parts of the eleven-week, 1000-mile ‘Cut the Carbon’ march, including 10 core marchers who will walk the whole route. They will join campaigners from the developing world to protest against the scandalous injustice that poor peoples’ lives are being wrecked by dangerous greenhouse gas emissions pumped into the atmosphere by the rich world.

Letters of recruitment have already been sent to the Anglican, Baptist, Methodist and URC churches and Christian Aid is also talking with leaders of many Black Majority Churches.Cut the Carbon will be in the tradition of marching against injustice that informed both the Jarrow March for jobs in 1936 and the Nelson Mandela freedom march in 1988.Beginning in Northern Ireland on the 14 July 2007, it will pass through Scotland, England and Wales and arrive in London via Bournemouth and the Labour Party conference eleven weeks later.‘Climate change is the most serious threat to the future of all of us, but the shocking truth is that it’s poor people in the developing world who are already on the frontline of climate chaos,’ said Paul Brannen, head of campaigns at Christian Aid. ‘We have a moral duty to stop this now and where better to start than at home?’

The essential messages of the march will be:

• The world’s poorest are already suffering due to climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions from the rich world
• The UK government must take action to reduce UK carbon emissions immediately and dramatically – by 5% year on year
• The UK government must also take the lead on negotiating a fair international agreement that will deliver a 90% cut in carbon emissions by 2050

Christian Aid is reducing its own carbon emissions and has just published its carbon footprint.

In addition, the charity has switched to an energy supplier that sources from – and funds the building of – renewable energy installations, is reducing staff travel, especially air travel and is taking all feasible energy-efficiency measures.

Christian Aid is committed to reducing its emissions by 5% a year by saving energy, purchasing voluntary offsets to account for those carbon emissions we cannot eliminate and cutting the amount of printed resources that we produce.In addition, Christian Aid will work with its field offices and partner organisations in poor countries to monitor the environmental sustainability of projects across all our programmes.

Paul Brannen is available for interview. Please contact Claire Shelley on 020 7523 2419, 07961 303481 or cshelley@christian-aid.org

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