Groups like the RSPB and Greenpeace have been speaking out, telling the government not to consider scrapping these vital protections. We launched a massive people-powered petition which collected over 52,000 signatures opposing the environment section of the Red Tape Challenge.

Today marked the end of the consultation so we made sure they got a response they can’t ignore: thousands of 38 Degrees members’ signatures and comments saying exactly why these laws need to be respected, not labeled ‘red tape’. 38 Degrees volunteers went to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to hand in the huge petition.

Now ministers have three months to propose changes to the law. We’ll be keeping a close eye on them, to make sure they’re making protecting wildlife and the environment a priority.

A few weeks ago, more than 10,000 of us e-mailed David Cameron to ask him to persuade Conservative MEPs to stick to government policy, and not oppose a vote for stronger climate change targets.

We teamed up with Greenpeace and Stop Climate Chaos to send a powerful message to the prime minster – don’t let your MEPs get in the way of stronger action on climate change.

We know that David Cameron felt the pressure from people power – he promised he would “work on” bringing his MEPs to heel. But this time,  he wasn’t up to the task.  A number of Conservative MEPs defied the prime minster by backing a weakened amendment, so that in the end the European Parliament did not adopt strengthened targets.

But it’s not the end of the road for plans to strengthen Europe’s climate change targets, from a 20% to a 30% cut in carbon emissions by 2020.  Climate change and environmental organisations, as well as youth organisations, MEPs from every nation in Europe, and growing numbers of leading businesses are all committed to strengthening the EU’s climate targets, to help build a low carbon future.

The defeat last month was a setback. But the demands from all of us for changes that would help build a more sustainable Europe aren’t going to go away. New proposals for strengthened targets will be brought back to Parliament as soon as MEPs are able.

How you think we could best work to together to tackle climate change? What should the focus be on – transport? Housing? Food?

Please share ideas and links to useful information below.

“This climate vote is going to be very close. 38 Degrees members could play a key role in making sure it goes the right way.”

Ruth Davis, Chief Policy Advisor, Greenpeace

Tomorrow could be a make or break day in the fight against climate change. There’s a crunch vote in the European parliament. It could come down to one or two votes. Hardline Conservative MEPs are threatening to vote against action to bring down emissions – we’ve got just 24 hours to stop them.

David Cameron could bring his MEPs into line by telling them to back strong climate action. That would probably tip the vote the right way. But Cameron will only act if he feels public pressure. Let’s help tip the vote the right way by sending Cameron a flood of emails urging him to act.

Can you send David Cameron a quick email asking him to make sure his MEPs don’t block vital climate change targets?

Tomorrow’s vote is crucial. If the European parliament votes for tougher targets it will be a great step towards cleaner energy, green jobs, and falling emissions. If the vote is lost, it’ll be a huge win for the dirty industries who are lobbying hard behind the scenes. If Europe rejects tougher targets, it will set back the fight against climate change across the world.

We know it works when we put pressure on David Cameron asking him to keep his climate promises. In May, thousands of us contacted him to tell him not to water down the UK’s own target – and it worked! Now, let’s do the same to make sure British MEPs don’t try to derail the Europe-wide climate effort.

Please email David Cameron now.

What a week in the world of UK carbon targets. With a crucial decision on climate change looming, thousands of us contacted our MPs. We asked them to urge David Cameron to listen to his expert scientific advice and keep his green promises. Good news, that message has got though.

On Tuesday, climate minister Chris Huhne announced that the government will accept the recommendations of the Committee on Climate Change. It’s not perfect, the government have given themselves a little bit of wiggle room in the form of a 2014 review, but it still represents a victory for people power.

So what was all the fuss about? Here’s a quick recap on the events to date:

• The 2008 Climate Change Act was a world leading piece of legislation committing the UK to serious action on climate change
• David Cameron was vocal in his support of the then Climate Change Bill as it made its way through parliament. He even sleighed through the arctic to highlight his concern for the effects of climate change
• Then days after coming to power last May, the prime minister promised he’d lead the “Greenest Government Ever”
• Earlier this year, the Committee on Climate Change, a body set up to help implement provisions of the Climate Change Act, issued its latest set of recommendations in their Fourth Carbon Budget. This included key emissions targets for the period 2023 to 2027
• Treasury insiders (and Vince Cable) have in the past weeks furiously lobbied David Cameron to reject these targets
• The prime minister makes the big decision this week

38 Degrees members have asked David Cameron to keep his green promises and accept the recommendations. If, as now predicted, the government backs the Committee on Climate Change, it represents an important  victory for people power. Once again 38 Degrees members have had our voices heard.

And we weren’t alone in making this call. A chorus of support for the CCC rose over the past week. Greenpeace brought their Huskies to parliament on Friday (click for cute dog pics) and some of the UK’s biggest NGOs, from the RSPB to Friends of the Earth to Christian Aid, have written to the prime minister telling him he needs to get to work if he’s to keep all those green promises.

While David Cameron has promised the “Greenest Government ever”, we have seen the priorities of many of his cabinet colleagues lie elsewhere. A victory here, but as 38 Degrees members, we know the need for our close inspection of environment decisions remains.

Less than a week into office David Cameron promised he would lead the “greenest government ever”. Now it looks like the prime minister is about to break a crucial commitment on climate change.

The crunch decision is expected next week. If it goes the wrong way, it could set back the fight against climate change for years to come. We need to move fast to stop that happening.

The press reports that the government is “deeply divided” on whether to tackle climate change. The UK’s chief climate adviser has described next week’s decision as “the key test” of the government’s commitment to being green.

Cameron has always promised to follow the advice of his scientists. But Treasury hardliners are pushing him to ignore the advice. [1] They want watered-down targets, cuts in green jobs, and a boost for the dirtiest industries.

David Cameron wants to be seen as a prime minister who keeps promises and cares about the environment. That gives us an opportunity to influence him. We need to ensure David Cameron is hearing from every single MP, all telling him the public won’t stand for broken green promises.

Please contact your MP urgently. Tell them to write to the prime minister, demanding he keeps his climate change promises.

By working together to put pressure on our MPs, we can make David Cameron realise that breaking promises on climate change would ruin his reputation. This is a man who posed in the Arctic with huskies, and promised to run the “greenest government ever”. If we speak out now, we can send a clear message: you can’t get away with talking green and acting dirty.

Tens of thousands of 38 Degrees members are working together to push this government to keep its green promises. Together, we stopped them selling off the forests, protecting them for wildlife and future generations. Nearly 50,000 of us have now signed the petition to keep the laws which protect our countryside and our wildlife. Now let’s work together to stop this urgent threat to the UK taking action on climate change.

The clock is ticking. A decision is expected early next week. We know that the hardliners will be using that time to put as much pressure on Cameron as they can. If enough of us contact our MPs, we can drown them out with people power.

Please email your MP urgently and ask them to contact David Cameron as soon as possible.

NOTES
[1] The really important recommendations are:

• A Domestic Action fourth carbon budget of 1950 MtCO2e
• An indicative 2030 target to reduce emissions by 60% relative to 1990 levels (46% relative to 2009 levels)
• An adjustment of the second and third budgets to reflect the level of ambition in the intended budget for the non-traded sector, giving an economy-wide reduction of 37% in 2020 relative to 1990

The full report is available from the Committee on Climate Change website.

Pressure on the government is building fast: It’s only two weeks since the Guardian newspaper first revealed this new threat to wildlife and the environment. As well as our big people-powered petition, more and more respected organisations are speaking out– including the RSPB, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace.

Let’s keep the pressure building. Can you help get the petition to 50,000 this weekend by asking your friends to sign?

On Monday, The Guardian newspaper revealed that the government might scrap vital laws which protect wildlife and the countryside and help stop climate change. 278 regulations designed to protect wildlife, tackle pollution, protect the countryside, and reduce climate change have been branded ‘red tape’ by a new government consultation, “The Red Tape Challenge”.

The government says it wants to “free up business and society from the burden of excessive regulation”. But included in the list of regulations under review are very important laws such as the UK Climate Change Act, National Parks Act, Clean Air Act and the Wildlife and Countryside Act. These aren’t little-known laws that no one cares about. The Wildlife and Countryside Act protects wild birds, their nests and eggs, and makes sure that national parks and marine reserves are protected. The UK’s Climate Change Act was a world first which helps make sure we reduce our emissions.

The Red Tape Challenge website makes it clear that if we want to protect these laws, we need to speak out:

“Once you’ve had your say, Ministers will have three months to work out which regulations they want to keep and why. But here’s the most important bit – the default presumption will be that burdensome regulations will go. If Ministers want to keep them, they have to make a very good case for them to stay.”

John Sauven, Director of Greenpeace, has said of these proposals:

“David Cameron needs to come out and say the Climate Change Act, central to the push for a clean technology revolution, is safe from the axe. But if ministers are serious about scrapping it and other vital environmental regulations then we’ll be looking at something akin to the worst excesses of the Bush-Cheney White House.”

Friends of the Earth commented:

“News in today’s Guardian that all of the UK’s environment law is going to be reviewed is extremely alarming”

In the past, David Cameron has made headlines promising to run “the greenest government ever”. We need to convince him that scrapping these laws would be a disaster for his reputation. A huge petition will prove to Cameron that he can’t afford to break his green promises.

We know that when we work together we can make sure the government doesn’t get away with plans which could hurt the environment. When they decided to try to sell off our forests, over half a million of us got together and convinced them to drop their plans.

The government says it wants to hear what we think before scrapping these laws – so let’s give them a consultation response they can’t ignore! Please help make sure we have a huge petition telling the government to keep laws which protect our wildlife and our environment.

David Cameron is on the brink of breaking his climate change promises. He’s under pressure from the Treasury to block bold new emissions targets that have been recommended by the government’s own climate change experts. We can’t let this happen. We need to tell him that we want him to keep his promise to lead “the greenest government ever.” Email David Cameron from this link: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/action-on-climate-change

Here’s the text of an email we just sent out about this issue:

Dear friend,

David Cameron has always promised to tackle climate change, but it looks like he might be on the brink of ditching that promise. We need to move fast to stop that happening.

Government climate change experts are recommending bold but realistic new targets. But hardliners in the Treasury are trying to block their progress. [1] It’s being reported that the government is “deeply divided” on what to do next. [2] If we act now, we can make sure the decision goes the right way.

The next two weeks are vital. If Cameron and Clegg are hearing from thousands of us, they’ll know that breaking their promises on climate change would mean uproar.

Click here send a message to David Cameron and Nick Clegg: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/action-on-climate-change

Last year Cameron promised to tackle climate change, saying he wanted to lead “the greenest government ever”. [3] It would be a disaster if this promise was broken. If we water down our targets, we won’t bring down emissions fast enough to stop dangerous climate change. And if we’re watering down our own targets, how can we ever hope to persuade the rest of the world to take action?

It was people power that pushed the last government to agree to set targets to tackle climate change in the first place. [4] It was people power that pushed Cameron and Clegg to promise to make climate change a priority. Now people power can persuade Cameron and Clegg to keep their climate promise.

Email Cameron and Clegg now telling them to accept the expert advice:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/action-on-climate-change

38 Degrees members have a great history of pushing the government to do better on the environment. Back in 2009, thousands of us phoned the then Climate Minister Ed Miliband just before he left for international climate talks. Last month, half a million of us helped stop government plans to sell off our forests. Just two weeks ago, tens of thousands of us voted to keep climate change a priority campaign for 38 Degrees. So now, let’s keep up the pressure and make sure Clegg and Cameron know they can’t water down our climate targets.

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/action-on-climate-change

Thanks for getting involved,

Johnny, Hannah, David and the 38 Degrees team

Notes:
[1] The really important recommendations are
- A domestic action fourth carbon budget of 1950 MtCO2e
- An indicative 2030 target to reduce emissions by 60% relative to 1990 levels (46% relative to 2009 levels)
- An adjustment of the second and third budgets to reflect the level of ambition in the intended budget for the non-traded sector, giving an economy-wide reduction of 37% in 2020 relative to 1990.
The full report can be seen here: http://www.theccc.org.uk/reports/fourth-carbon-budget

[2] The Guardian reports: “The news comes ahead of a crucial cabinet discussion of the UK’s climate change targets beyond 2020. There are still deep divisions between the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which is calling for tough targets to stimulate green growth, and the Treasury and the Department of Business, which argue that the current economic situation calls for less stringent targets in 10 years’ time.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/29/uk-global-green-investment-rankings

[3] http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/14/cameron-wants-greenest-government-ever

[4] http://www.foe.co.uk/news/climate_law_world_first_16014.html

Earlier this week, 38 Degrees members emailed their MPs about the Coalition putting “on hold” the promise to introduce Emission Performance Standards (EPS) in their first energy bill. Establishing minimum standards for how clean power stations should be is important for achieving the carbon targets that the Climate Change Act laid out.

Although the standard was promised in the Coalition agreement, plans to make the law seem to have been delayed. Thousands of us e-mailed our MPs to tell the government to clean up coal power production by sticking to their promise on delivering the standard.

Our pressure is clearly having an effect. On Tuesday, just one day after thousands of 38 Degrees members e-mailed their MPs, the Guardian published a letter from Chris Huhne MP, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, that restated his promise to delivering the standard. But so far, there’s no clear commitment about when it would be introduced. Many people are worried that this means the new emissions standard won’t be brought in for years.

If you haven’t yet, you can still email your MP to ask them to support an emissions performance standard: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/clean-up-coal

38 Degrees members will be keeping a close eye on the Coalition’s plans, to make sure they deliver the standard as fast as they can. In the meantime, share what your MP says on the 38 Degrees Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/peoplepowerchange/), so we can keep tabs on who is behind working quickly to get a standard made into law.

Ben Wallace MP in parliament: but where was he on the day of the crucial energy bill vote?

38 Degrees member Phil Milston has been in touch to let us know about the bizarre response he got from his MP’s office to one of the campaigns we ran back in February.

About 5,000 of us emailed our MPs to ask them to vote for our amendment to make sure the Energy Bill included an Emissions Performance Standard for new power stations. By setting limits on emissions we wanted to make sure the new generation of ‘cleaner’ coal-fired power stations lived up to their name. Phil was pleased to hear from his MP, Ben Wallace (Conservative), that “I fully agree with your assertion that it is important to include an EPS in the Energy Bill”.

So when our amendment was defeated by just eight votes, Phil was disappointed to find that Ben Wallace hadn’t bothered to show up and vote for it. Where was he? After receiving no response to his enquiries, Phil eventually received a reply from Ben Wallace’s PA last week to say:

“At the last election the boundaries of the Lancaster and Wyre constituency were redrawn and two new constituencies created. Mr Wallace was elected last month as the Member of Parliament for Wyre and Preston North and as such is no longer your MP. I would, therefore, suggest that you contact your new Member of Parliament.”

We’ve copied the full correspondence below.

If you’re one of Ben Wallace’s new constituents, why not ask him where he was? You can contact him at wallaceb@parliament.uk or call his PA on 0207 219 5804. And if you’ve had a similar experience with your own MP, please let us know!

—

Phil’s correspondence with Ben Wallace MP

Begin forwarded message:
From: phil milston
To: Ben WALLACE
Subject: Fwd: Reply from Ben Wallace MP

Hi Zoe,

As stated, my enquiry was specifically aimed at Mr Wallace and his support for, then absence from the vote.

He was our MP at the time and as such remains accountable for his actions regarding this issue.

All I’m looking for is an explanation of his actions. Why are Mr Wallace and yourself being evasive?

I look forward to your reply

Regards – Phil Milston

—–Original Message—–
From: ASHWORTH, Zoe
To: ‘phil milston’
Sent: Mon, 21 Jun 2010 10:25
Subject: Carbon emissions

Dear Mr Milston,

Thank you for your email in support of an Emissions Performance Standard.

You may be aware that at the last election the boundaries of the Lancaster and Wyre constituency were redrawn and two new constituencies created (Lancaster & Fleetwood and Wyre & Preston North). Mr Wallace was elected last month as the Member of Parliament for Wyre and Preston North and as such is no longer your MP.

I would, therefore, suggest that you contact your new Member of Parliament, Eric Ollerenshaw, if you would like to raise your concerns about carbon emissions.

Kind regards,

Zoe Ashworth
PA to Ben Wallace MP
Member of Parliament for Wyre and Preston North

Dear Mr Wallace,

Are you ever going to reply on this issue or will it become an embarrassment that will resurface to haunt you?

Begin forwarded message:
From: phil milston
Date: 29 March 2010 18:51:53 BST
To: Ben WALLACE
Subject: Fwd: Reply from Ben Wallace MP

Dear Mr Wallace,

I still await your response to the request for information below…..

Regards,

Phil Milston

Begin forwarded message:

Dear Mr Wallace,

I was most encouraged to recieve your reply quoted below. It was with great disappointment that I then found out that you did not bother to vote on this issue.

I would be most grateful if you would explain your actions.

Regards,

Phil Milston

On 23 Feb 2010, at 10:17, WALLACE, Ben wrote:

Dear Mr Milston,

Thank you for your letter about the Energy Bill and the inclusion of an Emissions Performance Standard (EPS).

I very much share your view that climate change is one of the greatest threats we face and reducing UK carbon emissions is an important contribution to reducing the global risk of climate change. I fully agree with your assertion that it is important to include an EPS in the Energy Bill. We have advocated introducing an EPS for a long time and, despite efforts to get it included in both the previous Energy Act 2008 and the Climate Change Act 2008, failed due to a lack of Government support.

You may be aware that we have already tabled a Conservative amendment in the form of New Clause 2 to include an EPS in the Bill. Furthermore, we would – if in Government – adhere to our commitment to introduce an EPS.

Whilst the Government has dithered over its approach to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), this Party has long supported your view that any new coal fired power stations must be fitted with CCS technology from day one and we will also restrict the emissions produced from power stations using an Emissions Performance Standard.

We envisage taking the most highly polluting, high carbon producing fuel of all and transforming it into a low carbon fuel of the future. Britain is blessed with large coal reserves, so there could be big benefits for our economy in cleaning up coal power. An incoming Conservative Government would contribute towards the creation of a national CCS infrastructure, allowing energy companies to plug in new CCS power stations making the UK a world leader in this technology.

Clean coal represents an element of our approach which rests on diversified energy supply made up of a wide variety of low-carbon technologies including large scale renewables and domestic micro-generation. This way we aim to re-build the British economy on the back of new, high-tech green industries, intelligent energy generation and transport, and energy efficiency in our homes, schools and businesses

Once again, thank you for taking the time to write to me.

Kind regards,

BEN WALLACE