Christian Aid Stages Power Station ‘Trespass’
Christian Aid
marked the 100 day countdown to December’s crucial UN climate change
summit in Copenhagen on Friday night by staging
a Mass Visual Trespass at an East Shropshire
power plant.
Images of Christian
Aid supporters holding up
climate justice messages directed at Prime Minister Gordon Brown were beamed
onto a cooling tower at the E.ON power station in Ironbridge, Shropshire.
A series of Mass
Visual Trespasses targeting similar landmarks across Britain
will take place over the next four months to highlight Christian Aid’s
demand that the UK
government takes a global lead in the battle against climate change.
Members of the
public are encouraged to join the trespass by adding photographs of themselves,
and their climate messages, at www.christianaid.org.uk/
‘Climate
change endangers us all. Halting it is urgent – the highest priority any
government should have,’ said one of the participants, the Reverend John
Routh, from Sutton Coldfield.
Another
participant, Natalie Williams, aged 26, from Stourbridge, West
Midlands, said: ‘I’m doing this to raise awareness. Copenhagen isn’t just
a talk. Real decisions need to happen there for a sustainable future, not just
for ourselves, but for our children as well.’
Christian Aid is
calling on Gordon Brown to attend the UN summit in person in December and to
press rich countries to commit to at least 40 per cent carbon emission
reductions by 2020.
It also wants the
UK government, along with other developed nations, to commit the necessary
support and resources, including technology transfers, to enable developing
countries to reduce emissions, develop in a low carbon way and adapt to climate
change.
In addition,
Christian Aid says no new coal fired power stations should be built in the UK
without carbon capture and storage facilities, which should also be
retro-fitted to all older power stations when the technology is proven.
Paul Brannen, head of campaigns
at Christian Aid said: ‘Ironbridge was an appropriate target for
our first Mass Visual Trespass because it is the birthplace of the Industrial
Revolution. It is rich industrialised countries like the UK that are historically
responsible for causing climate change. They must now demonstrate a new
kind of leadership in dealing with the consequences.
‘Climate
change is already having a devastating effect on the people we work with in
developing countries who have contributed very little to global warming.
Vulnerable communities are bearing the brunt of unpredictable weather patterns,
droughts, floods, tropical storms and higher incidences of disease. For these
people, climate change is now a matter of life or death.
‘It’s
time for a new revolution, a climate revolution. It’s vital that a fair
and just climate deal is agreed in Copenhagen
to come into force when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol ends in
2012.’
Tags: activism, christian, climate change, coal