Micah Challenge presses Brown on climate change action

Campaigners from churches across the UK have signed and sent postcards to Prime Minister Gordon Brown asking him to keep his promises to the poor and secure a global deal that helps poor communities adapt to the effects of climate change.

Members of Micah Challenge UK handed in nearly 2,000 postcards to 10 Downing Street yesterday ahead of this month’s UN climate change talks in Poland.

The movement says it is essential that the world takes bold and urgent steps to cut carbon emissions. It warns that a global deal must be secured by the end of 2009 or the opportunity for joint action may be lost.

The postcards were part of the Micah Sunday campaign this year which saw hundreds of UK churches get involved by engaging with the issues that affect the world’s poorest people.

Paul Thompson leader of King’s Church, Upminster, who was present at the hand in, said: “I’m grateful to Micah Challenge for provoking the Church to continue fighting for one of its core values. What we’re doing today is just part of the Church’s commitment to the poor among us. I stand with other church leaders and countless UK Christians to urge our Government to honour in full its pledge towards the Millennium Development Goals.”

Executive Director of Micah Challenge UK, Andy Clasper said: “If our Government and other world leaders do not act now and agree a strong climate deal by the end of 2009, countless lives will be under threat. Our changing climate threatens the livelihoods of millions of people around the world and could undermine all our efforts to tackle extreme poverty.”

Micah Challenge UK is a coalition of Christian organisations and churches in Britain united in their concern to fight global poverty. It is part of the international Micah Challenge movement of churches and Christian agencies uniting to hold their governments to account for the promises they made towards the fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.