Scotland’s Campaigns Highlights
As the year comes to an end, Campaigns Officer Diane Green looks back at some of Christian Aid Scotland’s campaign highlights this year.
The crucial UN Climate Summit is fresh in our minds. We welcomed First Minister Nicola Sturgeon playing a proactive role, especially her announcement of a further £12m for Scotland’s Climate Justice Fund. This means thousands of the poorest, most vulnerable people will be supported in dealing with the effects of climate change that they did not cause.
This was a great result, following our participation in Scotland’s Climate Change March in Edinburgh, where more than 5,000 people came together to ask the Scottish and UK Governments to act on climate change.
And before that our For the Love of campaign in February, where more than 600 of you asked the First Minister to play a proactive role in Paris, a message we took to the Scottish Parliament in May.
Throughout the year, we have toured Scotland. We worked with Eco Congregation Scotland at their annual gathering; fair trade groups looking at how climate change affects smallholder farmers overseas; Take One Action who delivered a bike-powered screening of ‘Bikes and Cars’, looking at cleaner transport; and Riding Lights Theatre Company who brought us their new climate show, Baked Alaska. We have also introduced our Big Shift campaign to churches in Scotland. This focuses on shifting from fossil fuels towards a fairer and brighter future. We also teamed up with Oxfam Scotland to talk about tax dodging at workshops in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee.
Throughout the UK there are more reasons to be hopeful, including the ‘Speak Up’ climate lobby in June, where campaigners from Scotland travelled by bus and train to speak to 45 of Scotland’s 59 MPs! More than 9,000 people attended in person to meet their constituency MPs to explain why they wanted the new UK Parliament to support national and global efforts to hold back CO2 emissions and build a cleaner economy.
Look out for our campaign news in the New Year as we continue to focus on ensuring that ambitious action on climate change is delivered here in Scotland. The Scottish Parliament election in May provides a great opportunity to do just that — and to focus on the many ways in which decisions at Holyrood could improve the lives of the poorest people. In our manifesto we are calling for a coherent, cross-government approach to international development. Please give us your support.
As always do check out all of our activities. You can find us at christianaid.org.uk/scotland
