Guest blog by Ruby Free, Campaigning Communications Officer, RSPB NI
RSPB NI have been working hard to ensure politicians deliver for nature and climate.
In May, Northern Ireland held its Assembly elections. We grasped this opportunity to ensure nature and climate issues were ambitiously addressed in the next Assembly term, and so did you. We want to thank you for speaking up for nature, for people and planet - here’s what we achieved.
The e-action
Using our e-action, many of you spoke up for nature, sending a whopping 2,317 emails sharing RSPB NI’s manifesto for nature with your local candidates. Many candidates who positively responded, promising to uphold key elements of our manifesto, have since been elected as MLAs! We’re looking forward to working with them, carrying on these discussions, making sure actions are taken to restore and protect nature.
Questioning your candidates
Mirroring our manifesto asks, we created 5 key questions for you to ask your Assembly candidates when they came to your door, kickstarting a conversion for conservation. We loved hearing about the questions you asked and the responses you received. This small action that many of you took showed politicians the public desire for ambitious environmental governance, thank you!
The election is over, and the hard work must start. The timeline of this Assembly term (2022-2027) will take us through the decade of ecological restoration towards 2030, when many nature and climate targets are due to be met so this mandate could not be more important.
Now more than ever we must maintain the pressure and ensure the Northern Ireland Executive acts to restore and protect nature before it’s too late.
Thank you for speaking up for nature and climate!