Christian Aid challenges nation to go green

Christian Aid is calling on the British public to follow in the footsteps of US President-elect Barack Obama by turning their New Year’s resolutions into an all out pledge to go green in 2009.

Christian Aid is urging the nation to make sure their concerns about the climate are heard by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other world leaders like Obama, who made a manifesto pledge to turn the US into a world leader on tackling climate change when he takes up office on January 20.

The aid agency wants the nation to speak up in particular about the plight of millions of poor people living in developing countries who it says are already feeling the “devastating effects” of climate change.

Christian Aid aims to gather 250,000 pledges to help women like Honduran grandmother and coffee cropper Audelia Ramos, whose village is under threat of hurricanes and flooding, and Senegalese mother Hadja Sala Diallo, who spends all day collecting water because of the encroaching desert.

The pledge commits individuals to reduce their personal carbon footprint by recycling, reusing and reducing consumption, and to press the Prime Minister and their local MPs about the UK’s commitment to working for a new international climate change agreement that is fair to poorer countries.

Christian Aid is gearing up for what it says is a “crucial year for making real progress on climate change” in 2009.

Next December, world leaders will meet in Copenhagen to negotiate a deal on climate change. Christian Aid is calling on industrialised countries to commit to cutting their CO2 by 80 per cent by 2050 to keep the global temperature rise below 2C. It warns that unless this is achieved, 30 million more people could go hungry, as much as 18 per cent of Bangladesh could be submerged under water, and as many as three billion people could face acute water shortages.

Rhian Beynon, Campaigns Manager for Christian Aid, said: “Let’s keep switching off the lights and cutting our flights, but let’s also make our voices heard by those in power.

“With a new US president who’s made climate pledges and a new international deal up for negotiation in December, it’s time to let Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other world leaders know that people across Britain want them to make a difference to the poor in countries like Senegal and Honduras.”

Ms Beynon said that in the last year, Christian Aid supporters had sent decision-makers and businesses some 70,000 letters, e-mails and action cards to get changes made to the pioneering UK Climate Change Bill, which now includes mandatory CO2 reporting for all FTSE-listed companies and a more ambitious CO2 reduction target.

“Campaigning with Christian Aid works,” she said. “Our supporters highlighted the need for strong legislation and the government listened.”