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Petition to Gordon Brown

The United Nations Association UK West Oxfordshire Branch, SWYCH, Sustainable Charlbury, CAWAG, and Churches Together in Charlbury are sending this letter to Gordon Brown to urge decisive action at the December Copenhagen Climate Change summit and the November Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinadad and Tobago. You can sign the letter at the Sustainable Charlbury stall at both the Farmers Market on 12 September and Street Fair on 19 September. Copies of the letter for signing are also available at News & Things, Evenlode Books, Cotswold Frames, and The Good Food Shop. We urge you to sign it but if you can't sign it in person, then please sign it via an email  providing your name and address. A copy of the letter will also be sent to our MP, David Cameron.

In addition to signing the letter, you could also join THE WAVE which will be a mass demonstration on Saturday 5 December in London - travelling from Charlbury by train to London will only cost £13.50 return per person if you travel in groups of four. This march will demonstrate our willingness for decisive action on climate change and call on all politicians to make the Copenhagen treaty as strong as the science demands.

UNA logoSwych Logo Sustainable Charlbury Logo CAWAG logo Churches Together Logo

September 2009

Dear Mr Brown

We are counting down to the single most important meeting of our times, the Copenhagen summit. We are writing to request that you personally attend Copenhagen and take a position to ensure that the resulting treaty is as strong as the science demands to avoid runaway climate change.   We also request that you use the CHOGM conference in November to get a strong statement on climate change, which will indicate that a diverse group of nations both developed and developing can agree on the need to act.

We specifically call on you and the British government to:

Quit dirty coal

Burning coal has contributed 50% of the build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today. We must stop emissions from coal urgently if we are to keep global warming below 20C. Any planned power station must show that it can comply with tough legally binding carbon emissions limits before permission is granted for it to be built. This tough stance should go hand in hand with a massive and urgent investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Protect the poorest

The world’s poorest and most vulnerable are already suffering the impacts of climate change. The UK must provide the resources needed, on top of existing aid commitments, to help vulnerable people in poor countries adapt to climate change and pursue a low carbon development path.

Act fair and fast

The UK is historically one of the countries most responsible for climate change. It is only fair that rich countries like the UK must act first and fastest to cut their emissions by at least 40% by 2020 and 80% by 2050 through domestic action, and call on other rich countries to do the same. It is only this that will give us a moral mandate to request developing countries also curb their emissions.

A strong climate treaty will not only reverse the march of dangerous climate change—it will also help us tackle some of the world’s largest challenges. We will create millions of green jobs, reduce healthcare costs, lift millions out of poverty, and put renewable energy into the hands of everyday citizens in the developing world.

Yours sincerely


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