Climate Change Campaign – Big Ask, Big Month, Big Lobby

The Big Ask Campaign has been a tremendous success, with 377 MPs to date (including the three Ealing MPs) showing their support by signing Early Day Motion 178. The next step is to get a Climate Change Bill included in the next parliamentary session.

There are two ways this Bill could become law. The first is by getting it included in the Queen's Speech, which takes place in November and is a list of the Government's intentions for the coming year. The second is for the Bill to be adopted as a Private Member's Bill. This is a parliamentary process whereby a few MPs' names are pulled out of a hat (the week after the Queen's Speech) and those MPs are allowed parliamentary time to introduce a Bill of their choosing.

Clearly it would be better to get the Bill included in the Queen's Speech if possible. For this to happen, we have to convince the Government that there is huge support for legislation on climate change. We want MPs to ask David Miliband (Secretary of State for the Environment) and Tony Blair to include a Climate Change Bill in the Queen's Speech this autumn.

That’s why Friends of the Earth is asking local groups to help ensure that between September 12 – October 12 every single MP has spoken with at least one person (more would be even better) who backs the Big Ask.

So please consider lobbying your MP. You don't need to be an expert on climate change. There will be plenty of information available from FoE on how to go about face to face lobbying, even training sessions, and opportunities to network with people from other member organisations of the Stop Climate Chaos coalition.

In addition, Camden FoE have proposed a London Letter of support, to be signed by all the London MPs. Again, we need to approach the Ealing MPs to ask them to sign.

IThe Big Ask, Big Month, Big Lobby website has just gone live:
http://www.foe.co.uk/lobby
(If you go to the link, scroll down the page, add your postcode, and then accept the conditions you will be taken to the Big Lobby message boards.) 

A lot of effort has gone into this campaign during the last year – let's make sure that we achieve what we set out to do!