Download Campaign briefing including ideas for getting involved

Campaign briefing:
Powering our common
home
We all need heat and electricity in our daily lives. But often the types of energy we use are causing harm
to God’s creation and our fellow sisters and brothers.
Fossil fuels - like coal, oil and gas – are driving climate change, which is pushing people into poverty and
hunger. In Africa, Asia and Latin America, droughts, floods and typhoons are becoming more frequent and
severe, and farmers who’ve lived off their land for generations are finding it harder to grow food.
But we have the power to change this. By using more clean energy like solar, wind or tidal power we can
better care for creation and love our neighbours.
Pope Francis is urging us to replace fossil fuel technology “without delay”. He asks, “How beautiful would
it be to leave the world a better place than the way we found it?”
What are we calling for?
We’re asking the Scottish Government to:
1. Phase out fossil fuels from Scotland’ energy mix and push for rapid growth in our use of clean
energy.
2. Prevent new fossil fuel projects by putting a permanent ban on further onshore oil, gas and coal
exploration and extraction, including projects related to unconventional oil and gas (such as fracking).
3. Promote access to clean energy for people in developing countries.
More detail is available on page 4.
Why now?
The first few months of 2017 offer some great opportunities to influence the Scottish Government’s
energy policy. The Government has just published its draft Energy Strategy as well as the Climate Change
Plan, which set out some great policies for combatting climate change. Over the next couple of months
Parliament and the Government will be seeking feedback on these proposals. After that the revised
policies will be debated in Parliament. Later in the year, the Government will also propose a Climate Bill
which should be a great opportunity to increase Scotland’s climate ambition.
What can you do?
1. Sign up to our e-action or sign a campaign postcard or petition to show your support for clean
energy. We’ll make sure these get to your MSPs (Members of the Scottish Parliament).
2. Meet your MSP to discuss the campaign. See page 2.
3. Collect signatures from friends, family and people in your parish. Download a petition at
www.sciaf.org.uk/cleanenergy
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4. Make a noise: take a photo of people in your parish with campaign pledge card and write to your
local paper or tweet about it. See page 3.
Top tips for meeting your
MSPs
Meeting your MSPs face to face is one of the most powerful things you can do as a campaigner. MSPs are
elected by their constituents and it’s their job to listen to you. Knowing that you care about an issue can
put it on their agenda and give them a mandate to act.
Tell us: Before you plan to meet your MSPs, please get in touch with Frances Rayner at
[email protected] or on 0141 354 5555. She can give you the latest briefing on political
developments and help you choose which MSPs to get in touch with depending on which committees
they sit on.
Find a friend: You’ll be even more persuasive if there are two or more of you, and you can pick different
points to cover. If you can’t find anyone, please don’t let that stop you!
Contact your MSPs: Go to www.writetothem.com to find out who all your MSPs are and email them. We
each have one constituency MSP and seven regional MSPs. All of them have a role to play in supporting
the campaign but Frances can advise which are most useful to meet. In your email you might want to link
to our policy paper, Powering our common home and ask for a time to discuss it. Most MSPs should be
able to meet you locally. Try to arrange a meeting as soon as possible (ideally in February) if you can as
there are some big decisions being made.
Prepare: After reading the briefing on page 4, make a note of the key points you want to cover and the
action you want your MSP to take. MSPs are very busy so they’re unlikely to remember everything you
tell them. Take a copy of the Powering our common home report to leave with them.
Show you care: Your MSP won’t expect you to be an expert. The most important thing is that they know
you care about the issue. Tell them why you want Scotland to move away from fossil fuels. For example,
you might want to tell them about the harm climate change is inflicting on people in Africa, Asia and Latin
America. If you’re doing something to cut your own carbon footprint (like switching your energy supplier
or eating less meat) tell them.
Show that others care: If other people in your community support the move to clean energy, please tell
your MSP about it. For example, you could tell them how many people have signed the petition, or if your
parish is an Eco-congregation. You might want to tell them what Pope Francis has said about fossil fuels
and climate change too.
Ask for action: Your MSP will probably be very good at agreeing with you and discussing the issues, but
don’t let them get away without considering your request for action. Keep your goal in mind and tell them
you’ll be in touch to ask how they got on.
Follow up with an email: Send a follow up email to your MSP thanking them for meeting and ask for an
update on any action they agreed. This is a good opportunity to send them the report again.
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Update SCIAF: Please get in touch to let us know how the meeting went.
Making a noise about the campaign
Whatever you’re doing to support the campaign, look for ways to make your message go far and wide. If
you’ve collected signatures in your parish, why not make a local news story about it and tell your MSPs?
Simply;
1. Take a photo of you and some people in the parish who’ve signed the petition. You could hold
copies of the petition and the campaign postcards or we’ve got a campaign prop you can print
copies of or pick up from our office in Glasgow. Be sure to take the names of everyone in the
photo and get their permission.
2. Send the photo to your local papers and adapt the template press release [here] or email your
photo to Frances and she’ll do it for you. Follow up with a call to the paper to check they got it.
3. Tweet your photo to Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change
and Land Reform and Paul Wheelhouse, Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy. You could
tweet something like, .@PaulWheelhouse parishioners in <name of parish> in <place> support
@sciaf campaign for #CleanEnergy www.sciaf.org.uk/cleanenergy. When tweeting Roseanna
Cunningham, use her Twitter handle @strathearnrose in place of @PaulWheelhouse
Similarly, if you’re meeting your MSP why not tweet about it and tell your local papers?
The human impact of climate change
In Africa, Asia and Latin America, droughts, floods and typoons are becoming more frequent and severe,
and farmers who’ve lived off their land for generations are finding it harder to grow food. Titus Kalembwe
is a farmer from Libala, Zambia. He told us:
“The main challenge we face is the weather itself. I’m not very old
but even in my life I have seen changes in the weather and the
seasons. Sometimes we have floods and at other times there are
droughts.
This season most people were hammered by drought because
there was no water in the streams. My family has to rely on a
bore hole in the next village which is 1.5 km away. If the climate
gets worse, it would be the end of family life and maybe even
death.
To world leaders I would say that if there is a way of stopping this
thing, please do what you can. They should plan not only for the
present but for the future.”
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“We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels –
especially coal, but also oil and, to a lesser degree, gas – needs to be progressively
replaced without delay.” Pope Francis, Laudato Si
Campaign briefing for talking to
MSPs
In Africa, Asia and Latin America, climate change is already pushing people into poverty. Fossil fuels – coal,
oil and gas – are one of the main drivers of climate change. To stop the climate crisis from running out of
control we can only afford to burn one fifth of the world’s reserves of fossil fuels.
SCIAF welcomes the Scottish Government’s vision for a low-carbon future and continued commitment to
climate action. The following proposals encourage Scottish politicians to take further action to accelerate
the move to clean energy.
1. Phase out fossil fuels from Scotland’s energy mix and push for rapid growth in our use of clean
energy. The Scottish Government should invest in clean energy and consider a range of policies to
cut our carbon emissions. While Carbon Capture and Storage could help Scotland reach its climate
targets, the Scottish Government should be wary of relying on this unproven technology as the
main avenue for cutting our emissions.
2. Prevent new onshore fossil fuel projects including unconventional oil and gas (such as fracking).
The Scottish Government should also develop an alternative development plan for the north east
of Scotland which takes into account the views and needs of communities whose livelihoods rely
on the fossil fuel industry.
3. Work across government to promote access to clean energy for people in developing countries.
When working with other governments, Scotland should always promote clean energy instead of
fossil fuels, whether this is through its international development work or trade and investment.
Any support for energy projects abroad must also take into account the rights and needs of local
communities.
You can find more detail on our campaign asks in our report, Powering our common home and our
frequently asked questions. Don’t forget, politicians won’t expect you to be an expert, the important
thing is that they know you care and you can show them a copy of the report.
Specific actions we’d like MSPs to take:
This will be different depending on the MSP so please do get in touch before you meet your MSPs to get
the relevant briefing for us.
1. Support a ban on fracking when it’s debated in Parliament.
2. Write to Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land
Reform and Paul Wheelhouse, Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy to tell them
constituents met you to talk about the campaign and ask them to use the Climate Change Plan
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and Energy Strategy to meet our campaign asks.
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