A religious lobby of parliament! A St George's Day to remember as a galaxy of habit-wearing nuns, monks and friars flocked to Westminster to lobby their MPs. I joined a delegation to go and spend 30 mins with the Environment Secretary, Hillary Benn MP. Our session was chaired by Fr Chris Jamison, a Benedictine from Worth Abbey in Sussex and famous for his contribition to the BBC2 "Monastery " series.
I have to say, the Minister was impressive. First in his time allocation and also in his energy of engagement. He accepted that the climate science is moving on and although he didn't want to usurp the role of his Climate Change Advisory Committee by pre-empting them, more or less conceded that 80 per cent cuts by 2050 were inevitable. As for ON's 90/2030 target: he wouldn't engage with that. (not in public at least!)
Shipping and Aviation?: the stock answer about how impossible it was to work out emissions responsibiltiies for international journies. But as Tony Juniper had pointed out the night before at a big FOE rally: if scores of civil servants can sort out the minutiae of fiscal codes and tax bands, they could crack this one easily!
But the real heroes of the day were the religious. I told them in a pre-lobby address, that their lives were beacons of hope. So many of them live out the "Live Simply" lifestyle: sourcing food locally, keeping transport emissions to a minimum and eschewing the pace of the modern world which is inevitably carbon intensive. They are holding a mirror up to the world. We need their witness now more than ever.
