Uniting on climate change

Yesterday I attended, in a personal capacity, the Coalition of Resistance conference in London (a campaign against government cuts). I won’t say more about that as this blog is non party political. But I was inspired to see many people acknowledging that there is an environmental perspective to issues about jobs and the economy.

I was glad to see that one of the workshops was about ‘responses to climate change’ - and that there were more people interested than the organisers had expected! The small room allocated to us was packed.

We heard first about the newly-formed Climate Alliance, an organisation which has close links with Operation Noah. Their aim is to bring together groups and individuals campaigning on climate change into a mass movement. They are keen to encourage grassroots activity and are organising regional events to help with this - there is one planned in Oxford on 8th January.

Organiser Peter Robinson describes the alliance as ‘a broad church’ that will include people of many different backgrounds and viewpoints.

We then heard of an example of environmentalists and trade unions working together, in the campaign for ‘one million climate jobs’. This group has produced an interesting and informative report detailing the benefits of this approach both to the economy and to the environment. Report editor Jonathan Neale argued that the roots of the current economic crisis and the roots of the current climate crisis are actually the same, meaning that environmentalists and those in the labour movement should find common cause. Amid the current gloom, it was good to find people putting forward a positive alternative, and the report is persuasive and hopeful. The Oxford launch of the pamphlet is on 25th January at Oxford Town Hall.

There were also plenty of plugs for the climate march next Saturday which will be preceded by a climate service organised by Christian Ecology Link. I hope to be there.

Prayer point

The 2010 climate march coincides with the United Nations climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico. The Christian Ecology Link website says this: ‘Despite the disappointment of Copenhagen, CEL and Operation Noah continue to support efforts to keep climate change high up on national and international agendas. With numbers for the march expected to be considerably less than in 2009 it is even more important for Christians to be present with our prayers.’