10:10 – Yes Please!

Jan 16, 2010 by phinharper    No Comments    Posted under: Span That World

At Althing 2009 DFs passed a slightly satirical motion acknowledging the 10:10 pledge and calling for DFs to cut their emissions by 20%. In response Climate Camper Oonagh Ryder wrote a damning article of the pledge. Now in response Phillip Richards, another Climate Camper breaks down why The 10:10 is realistic, brilliant and essential.

Only You Can Save (Hu)Mankind….
I’ve been trying to write an article about why the10:10 campaign (for people and organisations to reduce their carbon emissions by 10% in the year 2010) is wonderful, and I now have three different drafts but I think I didn’t really know what I wanted to say – so if you don’t come out of this wanting to sign up to 10:10, that’s entirely my fault and you should anyway! (p.s. let me know why you don’t want to..).

The Point
Basically the last article’s problem with 10:10 was that it’ll let companies like e.on clain that they’re green, or even “be lauded as climate heroes” whilst continuing to produce masses of greenhouse gasses, and even introduce new coal fire power stations into the UK, which would make the emissions reductions we need actually impossible.

This might be true for some, though I’d hope no-one reading this would be taken in by that kind of greenwash, but the point of 10:10 isn’t to award companies for reducing their carbon emissions, it’s to bring together the mass movement to actually start making significant cuts to the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions that we need right now is to set us on the path to a zero carbon society and b) to lead by example and help persuade other countries in the world and ourselves that as well as being inherently desirable, it’s not that difficult to do.

People

Groups like climate camp along with progressive media, have done an excellent job at focussing public support against some key emitters through taking direct action, and widening the political space of the climate change debate, but by their very nature they are not going to be the first step in tackling climate change for the vast majority of people in the UK (though maybe they will be for you) – They are probably not going to be on the front page of ‘the Sun’ (Click Here) in a positive light any time soon. People usually make small changes to their behaviour at a time, and though a 10% cut in carbon emissions in a year is ambitious for the country it’s easy for your average UK citizen. Nor is blockading coal power stations, though admirable, worthwhile, romantic and exciting, on its own going to cause them to stop burning coal and start building trains instead. There needs to be a further groundswell of opinion and action before this kind of thing is realistic. Many writers have likened the breadth and urgency of response we need for this enormous but achievable task to a war effort.

Organisations
As for the ‘system change not climate change’ argument that we can’t do anything without first addressing the capitalist system, we don’t have time not to do both at the same time. We need to be critical of the mantra of never-ending growth, and so recognise that the worst organisations are the ones most in need of persuasion and help to change – all our systems and corporations are made up of people just like you and me. Excluding heavy emitters from a scheme to reduce emissions because they are heavy emitters would defy the whole point of the scheme. Another issue was that companies only have to make reductions of 3%, to account for some being much leaner than others, but the point is making any reduction at all is a necessary and welcome first step.
10:10 will support those organisations that are already treading in the right direction, and help to shame those that aren’t into action. As a small example of 10:10 in  action,  would the District Fellowship – the most dynamic wing of a supposedly “sussed ‘n’ able” organisation, have Sarah Lawson in the brand new role of Sustainability Officer, or any system for even starting to measure our environmental impact if it weren’t for the 10:10 campaign? – I think not….

Government
The UK government has the supposedly ‘binding’ emissions reduction target of 80% by 2050… though how it binds I don’t think anyone knows, and there are hundreds of policies they could be implementing to tackle climate change but aren’t through fear of unpopularity or the strength of corporate lobbyists and vested interests. Ed Miliband, the UK’s minister for Climate Change – who I can’t dislike after finding out that he visited the Woodcraft Folk ‘Face Your Elephant’ tent at Latitude festival this year, spent 20 minutes finding out about Woodcraft and asking Kit Jones (recently too old for DFs but active member of General Council) what he would do if he were Climate Change minister, and wrote and signed “I love the Woodcraft Folk” on the Face Your Elephant wall before leaving (it’s true, I saw it) – among other’s has repeatedly said public pressure is hugely important in getting any action on climate change. The more people are campaigning and taking any kind of action, and the higher up people’s voting priorities it is, the more power his department gets to do things that other departments (like BIS, the Dept. for Business, Innovation and Skills (which was BERR which was the Department for Trade and Industry) don’t like.

The Point….again.
A 10% emissions cut in one year for the UK is an ambitious but workable, hence inspiring, target, and an undeniably good aim in absolute terms. The 10:10 campaign has the potential to unite many of the different groups and individuals in the UK concerned about climate change, giving, along with the sexy 10:10 tags you can get, a strong sense of joint endeavor, and building the engaged mass movement we’ll need to take us from 10% cuts to a zero or negative carbon society. It’ll also (perhaps most importantly) give us actual significant carbon reductions in a short space of time, hopefully along with a few other countries, to challenge and help the rest of the world to do the necessary same – climate change is a global problem. Already it has signed up (at the time of writing) 54,250 People, 2,064 Businesses, 1,067 Schools, Unis and Colleges and 1,437 other organisations (DFs is one of them), including 116 local councils, which between them cover a 3rd of the UK’s population, all whilst duplicate campaigns are being set up in 33 other countries. Narrow it is not – show me a climate change campaign with a similar impact and I’ll be impressed.

• So if you haven’t signed up yet, do it now, and persuade all your friends, family, colleagues and workplaces to do it too at 1010uk.org or if you’re abroad at 1010global.org,
And then go to your nearest Transition Town meeting, any number of other groups, or Climate Camp and take action.

• If you want to reduce your personal carbon footprint further than 10%, I strongly recommend getting the book ‘Carbon Detox’ by George Marshall out of the library (though I only got half way through before passing it on to someone else), or even buy them in bulk from the author at half price to distribute onwards HERE

• If you want to know the bit me and Oonagh both skipped, about why we need to reduce greehouse gas emissions, check out the hopefully empowering rather than depressing, ‘Six Degrees’ by Mark Lynas (which I’m also only half-way through).

• And I did wonder if I could’ve not bothered writing this and just posted this video, from Franny Armstrong, director of The Age of Stupid’ film, ‘Drowned Out’ and ‘McLibel’, and one of the originators of the 10:10 Campaign, instead. It’s the ending message from The Stupid Show’ which was a live show from COP15, when it was happening in December.