Download Action requests for MPs on Trade Justice

Lobbying workshop: Role play exercise
Lobby your MP about climate justice
PERSON A: You are meeting your backbench Labour MP to urge them to support a strong global
deal on Climate Change. You may like to use the key messages from the bullet points below. Make
sure you get them to firmly commit to taking some type of action.

I am really pleased that the UK is the first country in the world to pass national legislation to combat
climate change – the Climate Change Act. Thanks to the work of Members of Parliament, it is much
stronger than it would otherwise have been.

Climate change is already affecting those in the developing world who, whilst having done the least to
cause the problem, will suffer the harshest effects and have fewest resources to adapt.

As a CAFOD supporter I am very concerned to hear that CAFOD’s partners in Africa, Asia and Latin
America are already facing the challenges caused by changing climate. For example, one CAFOD
partner, Caritas Cambodia, has written that "One of the biggest challenges we are facing in our
development work is the increasing occurrence of natural disaster. What we have achieved over
many years is being destroyed by storms and washed away by floods."

During 2009 CAFOD campaigners will be pressing for a new and strong international deal to tackle
climate change to be agreed at the UN meeting taking place in Copenhagen in December. This new
international deal must:
1. recognise and support the right to sustainable development of people in developing countries. The
world’s poorest have done least to cause climate change, they shouldn’t be the ones who pay the
price! Countries like the UK, which have grown rich in part by polluting, must now repay their debt to
the developing world through money, sharing technology and knowledge and building capacity.
2. provide necessary support for developing countries – who are hit first and hardest by climate change
– to adapt to the impacts of extreme weather. This includes additional money for adapting to the
effects of climate change, as well as ensuring communities have access to clean, green technology.
3. tackle the root causes of the problem by setting strong and binding targets for industralised countries,
like the UK, to cut their emissions of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change.
Based on current scientific knowledge, CAFOD believes this should be at least 30-40 per cent cuts (based on
1990 levels) by 2020.
In fact, based on the ‘polluter pays’ principle and our historical carbon legacy, Lord Turner, Chair of the
Government’s own Committee on Climate Change, estimated that UK cuts should be as high as 42 per cent by
2020. The EU deal agreed in December 2008 is just too weak to ensure that we keep global temperature rises
below 2°C.

As my MP I would be grateful if you could do all you can to push for a fair deal at Copenhagen
in December 2009. Make sure you get your MP to commit to raising the three key issues above
with the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change or the Prime Minister.

Finish your interview by asking your MP to join you in making a pledge for climate justice –
make a recycled paper or card outline of your hand and write on it your message for the Prime
Minister. Include the three important points that the Climate Justice campaign is demanding
(see above) in your own words. Ask your MP to do the same.
Page 1 of 2
Key Stage: Post-16
Lobbying workshop: Role play exercise
You are an MP! Try to explain your position on climate change
to your constituents…
PERSON B: You are a backbench Labour MP who is ready and willing to meet a constituent to talk
about Climate Change and CAFOD’s Climate Justice campaign.
Listen carefully to what he/she has to say, and feel free to ask questions or use the key messages
from the bullet-points below in answering their questions. You will need to be clear to your
constituent about what you will do next.

No major industrial country has done more than the UK to tackle climate change. The
Government has shown consistent leadership, set bold targets and is pursuing ambitious
policies.

Last year, MPs passed the ground-breaking Climate Change Act which set binding targets for
emissions reductions in the UK. This includes the very strong target of 80 per cent cuts in GHG
emissions by 2050. This Act has made the UK a global leader on climate change. Do CAFOD
campaigners really expect this government and MPs to do even more?! Especially given the
current global financial crisis!

As a responsible MP, I recognise that the UK must fully implement the Act and show that the UK
is accepting its historic responsibility for the contribution it has made to the rise in global
temperature. However other industrialised nations must make commitments too! This is a ‘global’
deal and the UK can’t do everything.

In fact, within the UN talks, the UK is negotiating as part of the European Union. We need our
European colleagues to agree with us which is very challenging. However we are trying to do all
we can.

In December 2008, the UK supported an EU climate change package that commits European
nations to GHG cuts of 20 percent by 2020 (based on 1990 levels), and this will rise to 30
percent by 2020 should a strong deal be reached at Copenhagen. That’s not that far off
CAFOD’s suggestion that the UK make cuts of 30-40 per cent?

Citizens in every country must lobby their own governments so that they can be sure the political
will exists to push for a stronger agreement at Copenhagen.
Page 2 of 2
Key Stage: Post-16