On Saturday 25 September volunteers from the Manchester Greenpeace Group hosted an event as part of Great Big Green Week (18th – 26th September) on Chorlton Green. More than 2000 events will be held across the UK as part of Great Big Green Week, calling for the UK Government to lead global ambition for climate action at the upcoming UN climate conference (COP26) in Glasgow
Volunteers collected messages from local people about the hopes they have for a greener future, and what they’d like the Glasgow climate summit to achieve. Messages from all over the UK will be displayed at the conference in Glasgow, so world leaders know they need to act now. Members of the Manchester Group also crafted their own message onto a 10mx20m tapestry map of the UK, which will be carried during the march in Glasgow on 6th November.
Volunteers also surveyed passers-by about their views on Government’s action on climate, these results will be released in October.
Martin Porter from said ‘It’s easy to be pessimistic about the climate crisis. We’ve seen a summer of extreme weather, with fires, heatwaves and floods causing hundreds of deaths across the world and the recent UN report into climate change gave us the starkest warning yet that action is needed urgently.
‘However, children who turned up were an inspiration. They were so positive in their messages and so clear about what needed to be done. They know we need to urgently move away from fossil fuels and build a cleaner and renewable future. We hope to the government will listen.’
Other messages people wanted to send to the Prime Minister included “Deal with the climate crisis with the urgency we have for Covid” and “Be a leader for change”
As the host of global climate talks, Boris Johnson wants to be seen as a world leader on climate. But recent proposals for a new coal mine in Cumbria, the support for new drilling at the Cambo oil field, and the scrapping of measures to help people cut carbon from their homes expose the Government’s claims of world leadership as hollow.
Manchester Greenpeace Local Group is calling on the Government to limit global temperature rises to 1.5° Celsius in order to avoid the most devastating impacts of the climate crisis. This includes an immediate ban on all new fossil fuel projects and a strategy for ending fossil fuel use altogether, with proper support for workers and communities to transition to jobs in green industries, like renewables and energy efficiency.
Leaders must also make good on, and increase, the promised $100bn per year in climate finance to countries hardest hit by the climate crisis.
Lastly, Manchester Greenpeace Local Group is demanding that all leaders commit to strongly protecting at least 30% of land and sea by 2030, respecting the rights of indigenous people and local communities who depend on them. This must include legally binding targets in domestic and international law to begin to significantly reverse the decline of nature by 2030 starting now with immediate action to halt deforestation.
