In early November a group of 13 residents (including a baby) from London’s Islington North constituency formed a new local environmental action group after taking part in the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition Big Climate Connection.
We met as a group for the first time late in October to plan our meeting with Jeremy Corbyn, our long-standing local MP. On the day we spent well over an hour with Jeremy and had an incredibly productive discussion on what we’d like to see done to tackle climate change.
This meeting was just a first step. With Jeremy’s involvement we’ll work together in our constituency to push for action to reduce carbon emissions locally in Islington, as well as nationally and internationally.
Several of those at the meeting are part of Islington Eco Teams and are on the front line of reducing carbon emissions in their own homes and neighbourhoods. This kind of local action is part of what we can all do to tackle climate change.
The Energy Security and Green Economy Bill, due to be published in parliament soon, is one of our primary concerns right now. This bill should put in place legislation to make it easier, cheaper and more attractive to retrofit your home and introduce an Emissions Performance Standard on power stations.
We asked Jeremy Corbyn to support a stronger and more ambitious bill through his role in scrutinising legislation in parliament and through pushing the government and his own Front Bench Team.
For a lot of the people at the meeting it was the first time they’d been involved in campaigning locally to tackle climate change And for half the group it was the first time meeting and lobbying our MP.
This small action by us will hopefully lead to many more from our new group. We’ve already received a written response from Jeremy, which points to how active and engaged he’ll be on this issue. He said: “I found our discussion really interesting and will follow up the points raised...The most pressing issue is to continue trying to develop opinion away from ever greater use of declining resources in favour of conservation and biodiversity.”
Thousands of people across the country are also meeting their MPs this Friday and Saturday. More than 250 meetings are taking place this week. Make your voice heard, and take that small step locally to tackle climate change by meeting with your MP. It will have lasting impact nationally and internationally, and you may end up roping your MP into delivering something for you locally as well.
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