LOCAL MP BACKS CLIMATE CHANGE FIGHT-BACK CAMPAIGN

12.24.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 3rd Aug 2009

Hazel Grove MP Andrew Stunell joined bishops, school children and a couple of alpacas at a rally in Westminster last week designed to highlight the growing threat of climate change.

The colourful rally was organised by Operation Noah, the Christian climate change campaign, to highlight the need for governments to tackle the threat of climate change at the crucial UN summit in Copenhagen this December. Mr Stunell was joined at the event by the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Richard Chartres, Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband MP and several hundred schoolchildren.

But Mr Stunell also encouraged the government to do more at home to stop climate change - and to start by implementing the proposals of his Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act, passed into law in 2004, to make homes greener, and reduce carbon emissions.

Commenting after the event, Andrew Stunell said:

"The Copenhagen Summit is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get a worldwide agreement on global warming, and it is vital that the UK and other nations do not let it pass them by.

"The large number of children here today shows that this is a topic that the younger generation feels strongly about as well, and underlines the fact that they will be the ones who will have to live with the consequences of the actions we take in the coming months and years.

"We all want better for our children than we received ourselves, so we all need to do as much as we can to save the planet that they inherit.

"However, our own government can and must start taking steps now to reduce our own emissions. By using the provisions of my Bill to require better energy efficiency standards of houses, they can drive down carbon emissions and fuel bills, whilst at the same time creating thousands of new jobs."

ENDS