Big dairy farmers are making plans to build an industrial size dairy farm, which will house over 8000 cows. It would be the largest farm within the UK and the animals are kept in harsh conditions.  With so many cows housed on one farm, there is a serious risk of mistreatment, which could lead to spread of disease. Some people are calling it a “battery chicken farm for cows”. We’re building a petition against these farms going ahead – click here to sign it: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/no-megadairies

These huge farms, or ‘megadairies’ also produce a massive amount of waste (which would especially affect those living nearby), as well as raising emissions of greenhouse gasses. People are worried about the quality of the milk that is produced, as the cattle would not be eating grass, but spending all their time inside, living off processed feed.

The fears are that this would have a massively negative effect on the current diary production in the UK. It would mean that more responsible dairy farmers could be squeezed  out of business and the UK would be heading down the road of huge, industial farms, similar to those in the USA.

Last year, 170 MPs signed an early day motion in opposition to the plans.  But together we need to keep the pressure on, to make sure that the new plans for the farms don’t go ahead in Lincolnshire. Sign the petition to Lincolnshire County Council here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/no-megadairies/

Here’s a breakdown of how MP’s voted on the Emissions Performance Standard amendment yesterday evening. If four more Labour MPs had rebelled, we’d have won - so if your MP voted the wrong way, please do get in touch and ask them why.

If your MP is not listed, that means they didn’t turn up to vote at all

With thanks for the data to Public Whip

Happy that your MP voted the right way? Or need to challenge them on why they didn’t? Click here to send them a quick message.

Late last night we received a leaked document from the Energy Minister Joan Ruddock telling Labour MPs not to support limits on power stations emissions.

You can download and read the letter from the Minister here and then read our response here (both PDFs)

Take action by telling your MP to stand up to the Government and support a cleaner energy bill here.

We’ve just sent this email out:
Over the past 48 hours, thousands of us have emailed our MPs to call for limits on power station emissions. We’ve caused a real stir in Parliament. Opponents of these new rules are trying to fight back – we’ve just got hold of a copy of a letter from Energy Minister Joan Ruddock, sent yesterday, telling every Labour MP not to support our amendment.

Working with Friends of the Earth, we’ve prepared a point by point response to the minister’s letter, setting out for MPs why it’s not convincing and why they must stick to their support. Please could you email your MP again today to send them a copy of our response?
The debate starts in parliament today – please email your MP now here:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/energy-bill-urgent-action

The vote will take place later today. The government clearly thinks we’re having an impact – that’s why they’ve felt pushed to respond. But the government’s document isn’t very convincing [1]. Together we can make sure MPs know that we’ve seen their briefing from the minister, we’re not convinced by it, and we still want them to vote in favour of Emissions Performance Standards for new power stations.

Our colleague Martyn Williams from Friends of the Earth has been in parliament for the past couple of days talking to MPs about the bill, and stayed up last night to prepare our response to the minister. Here’s what he has to say:

“Thanks for all the emails so far – they’ve made this a big issue in parliament, MPs are all feeling the pressure. We know that the government whips are also building up the pressure, and many Labour MPs really want to be reassured by these letters from the Minister.”

“But if they know their constituents aren’t convinced, it makes it much harder for them to simply accept these assurances and vote with their party. The debate starts just after lunch today, the vote will be sometime this afternoon – this is our last chance to make a difference. Please help.”

Send your MP another quick email to make sure they don’t accept the minister’s letter at face value:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/energy-bill-urgent-action

Thanks for being involved,

David, Hannah, Johnny, Nina and the 38 Degrees Team

NOTES

[1]Some points are completely irrelevant – like the claim the amendment would achieve nothing as the Government could introduce an EPS anyway. The problem is Ministers aren’t going to – and the amendment would force them to. Surely that’s achieving quite a lot. Another claims that the EU Emissions Trading Scheme will deal with the problems. Unfortunately the key Government advisors – the Committee on Climate Chnage – have told the Government they simply do not accept that and other policies must be introduced.  Two other points quote half sentences from the Committee on Climate Change – Martyn has dug out the other half of the sentences – which stress the need for clear and rapid Government action.

You can see the text of the leaked letter, and our response, here:

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/-/documents/Response_Joan_Ruddock.pdf

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/-/documents/Joan_Ruddock_letter.pdf

Tomorrow Parliament will be voting on a new energy bill. Over the past few weeks thousands of us have been emailing our MPs to demand they vote for important changes to this bill. Now we’ve got 24 hours to increase the pressure even more.

We’re committed to helping fight climate change by reducing the UK’s carbon emissions. But if the new laws are passed in their current form, a new generation of ‘cleaner’ coal-fired power stations will be built without any limits being set on their emissions. Not only that, but we’ll be subsidising these power stations to the tune of millions of pounds.

That’s why we’ve been putting pressure on MPs to include an Emissions Performance Standard in the Bill.  This will make sure that when energy companies build these new power stations, they have to meet proper standards.   If we act together now, we can make a big difference in helping the UK meet its emissions targets.

Tell your MP to vote for a cleaner energy bill here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/cleaner-energy-bill

A seasonal postbox

It’s been quite a year. I’ve been so inspired to see so many people getting involved with 38 Degrees since we launched in June. In the last 6 months 60,000 of us have taken action a huge 177,695 times. It’s fantastic to see that people right across the country have joined in our movement – see our action map here

We’ve been working hard on issues from climate change to cleaning up politics, from tackling poverty and sticking up for public services to speaking up for human rights and civil liberties.

But this is just the beginning. What do you think we should be working on next year? How do you think we should campaign in the election? Are there issues you really think we should campaign on? Let us know in the comments below.

In the run-up to Copenhagen almost six thousand 38 Degrees members signed a petition to Gordon Brown. We told him to secure a binding agreement that ensures carbon cuts of 40% in wealthy nations by 2020 without offsetting.  We also asked him to protect the rights of the world’s poorest people by guaranteeing adequate funding to allow clean development and measures to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Today the Prime Minister is off to take part in the Copenhagen talks, so we decided yesterday that it was the perfect time to deliver our petition to Downing Street.  Last week we sent Climate Minister Ed Miliband off to the summit with our words ringing in his ears after his giant conference call with thousands of 38 Degrees members (listen to it here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/live).  Today we wanted to give Gordon Brown the same message: that we want action.

Wrapped up against the winter weather, a delegation of 38 Degrees staff took our message right to Mr. Brown’s front door. 38 Degrees volunteer Katy presented the petition to a government representative under the stern eyes of the resident police officer.

Gordon Brown intends to be the first world leader to arrive in Copenhagen today.  Let’s hope that this is a sign of things to come.  In this crucial debate he must be the first to push for ambitious goals and first to commit his country to binding agreements.

38 Degrees members have just taken part in the UK’s first ever mass phone call with a government minister, with Ed Miliband, Minister for Energy and Climate Change. 1000s of us chose the questions together, and 38 Degrees members put them to Ed Miliband direct – sending a clear message that we want him to fight for a good deal at the climate talks in Copenhagen.

Next week, he’ll be sitting around the negotiating table with our words ringing in his ears.

You can hear a recording of the whole call here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/live

Now we need to keep up the pressure. Callers found common ground with Ed Miliband on the urgent importance of tackling climate change and we recognised good progress in some important areas. But there were other areas where we wanted him to go further -  for example on the scale of emissions cuts needed by 2020, on phasing out dirty coal power stations, and on money to help developing countries tackle climate change.  During the Copenhagen summit we can work together as a rapid response team, to pile on the pressure for a fair, ambitious and binding deal at Copenhagen. Click here to get involved with our Copenhagen rapid response plans: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/copenhagen-swarm

No government minister has ever been part of a call like this before. It was a credit to the Minister that he was willing to engage, but it happened because by campaigning together we’ve got the government’s attention. Everyone who took part – the people who asked the questions, those who commented online and everyone who voted in our question poll were all part of it: it’s yet more proof that people power works.

Together, we asked Ed Miliband the kind of searching questions that made sure he understands that there are millions of people who want him to fight for a good deal at the talks. Obviously not everyone got to ask their question, but we made sure Mr Miliband left with a copy of every single suggested question to read later.

Thanks for being involved.

UPDATE: We’ve grouped together the 12 most common suggestions for question areas from the blog, facebook, and the registration form, and set up a poll to prioritise between these.  You can now help pick the questions here: http://38degrees.org.uk/page/s/PickQs4Miliband

This Saturday, we will have a direct line to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.  Ed Miliband will be on the phone answering our questions before he heads off to the summit at Copenhagen next week.

Hundreds of us have signed up with questions to put to Ed and I’ve been taking a look at the list.  So far questions range from the irreverent  –  ‘How much time have I got?’  –  to the deadly serious.  But what are the most important things we should be asking him?

Our phonecall with Ed is happening on the same day as The Wave, a massive march through London, organised by Stop Climate Chaos.  For many of us, SCC demands are the starting point for questions. These demands are:

(1)  That the UK government seeks to secure a fair deal at Copenhagen to limit global warming to 2 degrees C.

(2)   That the UK government commit to funds on top of existing aid commitments, to help poorer countries adapt to climate change.

(3)  That the UK end its reliance on dirty coal power.

Many of us will want to know where Ed stands on these aims.

For others who signed up with questions, different issues are just as pressing. How the UK is planning to put pressure on the US at Copenhagen is a question that is top of a lot of people’s lists, including my own.  We need to secure commitments from the world’s second biggest carbon emitter, but this isn’t an easy task.  Another key concern is renewable energy. Why aren’t we investing more money in this?  Finally, many of us want to know what Ed’s strategy is for helping the UK population meet their personal emission targets. Will he use the carrot, the stick, or both?

Tomorrow our online poll will open so that you can help us decide what the most important questions to ask Ed are.  In the meantime keep your thoughts and suggestions coming by signing up on our website, or joining the conversation on twitter and facebook.