York Friends of the Earth was an important part of the Friends of the Earth Big Ask campaign that led to the creation of the world’s first climate change law right here in the UK. In fact we helped more people lobby their MP than any other group in the country. Together with hundreds of groups and hundreds of thousands of people across the Britain we won that campaign and set a world first.
Now that we’ve won the legislation it’s time to start making change happen right here in York.
Our new campaign – part of another UK-wide initiative by Friends of the Earth – is called Get Serious. It’s all about making the cuts in greenhouse gas emissions happen in our local area and transforming the level of action being taken to tackle climate change in the very place we live.
Time is running out. If we want to tackle climate change we need to act fast. Local authorities have the potential to tackle a huge swathe of causes of carbon dioxide emissions. Making that happen across the country could lead to genuinely massive change. We need to win commitments from local authorities and national government to policies which will deliver a 40 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020. It’s a tough call but we know we can do it. The potential is there. A lot of the power is there. And people want action. What we need to do is work together to make the change happen. That’s what our new campaign is all about.
We’ve got exciting plans for how we’re going to get there - all sorts of activities to suit all sorts of people. Whether you’ve never spoken to your council before or if you’ve spent the last twenty years working your way through the corridors of local power. The campaign has ways for everyone to get involved and help make a real difference right here in your York and in doing so, make your mark on climate change where you live. We’ll be taking action together alongside local groups across the country pushing for the same change and pushing ultimately for national action by the Government too.
Right now we’re at the early stages of planning the campaign. We’ll put more information up here as it becomes available. In the mean time, get in touch to find out more about how to support the campaign or get more involved.