For the love of nature, speak up and let's tackle climate change

Today's the day to speak up for nature in the face of climate change.

I am off to London for what promises to be the largest ever climate lobby of Westminster.  We're calling this event "Speak Up For The Love Of" .  The sun is shining and it’s looking like it’ll be a glorious day for people to line the streets around the Houses of Parliament and speak to their MPs about climate change.

Chris Gomersall's fabulous image of golden plover in flight

The RSPB has helped to organise this day with friends from The Climate Coalition made up of a host of other charities and NGOs. All the people that come today have a shared concern about the impacts of climate change on people and on wildlife.

The IPCC reports last year (see here) provide the motivation for action - unless we decarbonise the global economy, we face dangerous global temperature rises, an unstable climate with catastrophic consequences for the poorest people of the world and for our most sensitive ecosystems.  

I’m looking forward to meeting my new MP, Daniel Zeichner, and asking him to make a climate change a priority during this Parliament, and to push for ambitious action at the UN summit in Paris in December.  I've listed our 'asks' at the end of the blog.

Our collective numbers will also be a powerful reminder to government of the pledge David Cameron signed just a few short months ago committing to action on climate change.

It should be a fun day.   I expect to bump into RSPB colleagues from across the organisation - including those in Team Sky-Lark who have cycled all the way from Edinburgh this week - and to meet many RSPB supporters who will be congregating in St John’s Gardens. If you’re attending, do come and see us from 11am.

But today’s event isn’t a one-off. Today feels like part of a growing tide of action around the world on climate change.

Two days ago (15 June) the International Energy Agency published its World Energy Outlook Special Report on climate change and energy. The report calls for the UN climate negotiations to result in a peak in global emissions by 2020 and then a fall.

Tomorrow (18 June) we’re expecting the Pope’s encyclical on climate change and the environment. Whatever your views on religion, this is (if the draft that has been leaked in the media is anything to go by) a welcome intervention that could encourage many individuals and organisations to see the environment as a more important concern and to take more action to protect it.

And "Speak Up For The Love Of" is just one step on the path to a cleaner future. The Climate Coalition and the RSPB will continue to do what we can to build a movement for action on climate change in the UK until Paris and after it.

You can follow today’s events on Twitter through @Natures_Voice or #fortheloveof.  And, if you couldn’t make it along on today, you can still send your MP a message.

Tomorrow, I'll offer my highlights from today’s activities, and will on the message Amber Rudd MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, will have for us at a reception this evening.

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What The Climate Coalition is asking MPs to do

Our goal worldwide is 100% clean, safe energy by 2050, protecting people and nature. We’re asking UK politicians to tackle climate change domestically and globally:

1. Domestic action

We're asking politicians to ask the Prime Minister and Chancellor to back a low-carbon infrastructure plan, covering energy and transport and the restoration of nature. This plan should include:

Warm homes for all
• Ensuring the UK’s buildings are energy-efficient by making the retrofit of existing homes a government infrastructure priority.
• Making 2 million of the UK’s low-income homes highly efficient by 2020, and all 6 million low income homes highly efficient by 2025.
• Ensuring new building regulations for homes and buildings in England are zero-carbon.

Clean, safe power
• Ending climate pollution from coal by 2023.
• Creating an almost entirely carbon-free power system by 2030.
• Introducing a long-term investment plan for renewable energy sources.
• Making sure households, communities and businesses have a real stake in the plan.

Protecting people and nature
• Introducing a statutory commitment to restore natural places and systems within a generation, making sure nature and people can withstand and adapt to climate change – for example by coping with more flooding and droughts.

2. International action

The UK government should use all of its powers and influence to work for international action on climate change – specifically:
• Make sure the new Sustainable Development Goals agreed in September 2015 respond to the threat of increasing climate change and deliver low-carbon development.
• Help agree a global climate deal in Paris this December that requires all countries to take their fair share of action to limit global temperature rise to well below the internationally agreed target of 2°C and support developing countries to cope with escalating climate impacts.

To achieve this, we are calling on the UK government to support a global goal to phase out pollution from fossil fuels for 100% clean, safe energy by 2050. This means richer countries shifting first and rapidly from fossil fuels towards renewable energy, and delivering climate finance for developing countries so they can achieve clean development and adapt to the impacts of climate change.