'The Time is Now' mass climate lobby

A group of people from Leicester, including members of Leicester Friends of the Earth, Global Justice Now Leicester, Leicester Green Party and a Baptist minister, travelled to London today to attend ‘The Time is Now’. This mass lobby was organised by environmental and faith organisations, bringing people together to tell MPs to end our contribution to climate change and restore our natural environment.

The organisers estimate that 12,000 people attended. They stood in groups organised by geographical areas along the banks of the Thames and held up signs with the names of their constituencies, so that MPs were able to find their constituents. At 2pm, everyone set off alarms to wake up parliament to the climate emergency.

The activists were asking politicians to create policies to slash carbon emissions now and also pass a strong Environment Bill that can restore nature, cut plastic pollution and improve air quality.

The government has set a long-term target for ending our contribution to climate change but their energy policies seem to be going backwards. They are still pushing fracking and trying to open a new coal mine, while increasing taxes on solar panels. When we are facing a climate emergency, that is madness. The long-term target is meaningless without immediate action.

We were disappointed that Keith Vaz did not turn up. Liz Kendall and Jon Ashworth did come to speak to their constituents, however. We had an interesting conversation with Jon Ashworth about the connection between human wellbeing and the environment.