5th November 2010

Starting this weekend, people across the UK from all walks of life – from supporters of environment and development groups, from unions to local community groups and health professionals - have joined up to lobby more than 250 MPs as part of the Big Climate Connection!

Check out the photos below to see what's happening around the country, as part of the Big Climate Connection. If you've had your meeting with your MP and have a photo, send it to gail[at]stopclimatechaosscotland.org (replacing [at] with @) who'll get it uploaded to the website for you.

What's the Big Climate Connection all about? Read on to find out more.
The Stop Climate Chaos Coalition is calling on people across the UK to connect with other people in their communities on the 5th or 6th of November and lobby their MPs.

With supporters from more than 100 organisations coming together for the Big Climate Connection, we can show MPs that people from all walks of life – from environment to development groups, from unions to local community and health groups - are calling for action on climate change.

There's more information on how you can get involved below and you can sign up to be involved in the Big Climate Connection here.

What is a lobby and what will I be expected to do?

Lobbying is not a specialist skill. It simply means meeting your MP, explaining your views, and asking him or her to act on them. MPs are our representatives. It’s their job to make sure that the Government hears the concerns of ordinary people, and MPs often say that face to face meetings with their constituents is one of the things that has the most impact on them.

You can find out more about what's involved in the Big Climate Connection lobby pack. Download it (in pdf) at the bottom of this page.

What will we be asking for?

November is a key time for climate politics and together we can really influence some big issues:

International: The Big Climate Connection will take place three weeks before the UN Climate Change talks in Cancun, Mexico. The UK should commit to pay its fair share of the money needed to support poor countries who are already affected by climate change.

UK : A new UK Energy Bill will be before Parliament in November.

Scotland : Scotland has the strongest climate change laws in the world and we want to encourage the UK Government and the EU, ahead of the climate change negotiations in Cancun, to follow Scotland’s lead.

Local: Local lobbyists can link the climate asks in with local issues, to show MPs that climate change really is relevant to their constituents. If there are any local issues of concern that are connected to climate change, this will be a great opportunity to bring them up.

As you may know, some issues relating to climate change are devolved to the Scottish Parliament, so people in Scotland can find out more about these issues in a seperate briefing at the bottom of this web page.

What can you do now?

• Sign up and make connections via the interactive lobby map

• Why not tell your MP now that you’ll be joining the Big Climate Connection? You can use our example letter/ e-mail.

• Get others involved! Can you connect with other people or groups in your constituency to show your MP how diverse the movement is? Do you know people in other areas that might want to coordinate, or join in, a lobby in their constituency? Help us spread the word about The Big Climate Connection!

Resources

The Big Climate Connection lobby pack has lots of tips and ideas for lobbying your MP and information on how you can get involved.

As you may know, some of the issues relating to energy are devolved to the Scottish Parliament, so we won't be asking you to talk to your MPs about all of the same issues as people taking part in England. Those in Wales and in Northern Ireland will also be given information on the issues which are relevant to them. So please read the information on what we're asking for in Scotland as well as the general lobby pack.

• Download the full lobby pack here
• Download the final version (finalised after the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review was announced on 20th October) of the briefing for people in Scotland on what you'll be talking to your MP about here.

If you want some media attention at your lobby, you can get some tips and a template press release in our local media pack for Scotland.

We also have Big Climate Connection flyers. You can download the flyer here, or if you'd like printed flyers to help spread the word, just e-mail admin@stopclimatechaos.org, and tell us how many you want and where to send them.

If you don't have a PDF reader you can either download the free Adobe reader or the open source alternatives Sumatra or Foxit.