The Irish Government today published a Climate Action Bill which Friends of the Earth Ireland has described as, "like a compass with no needle".
Friends of the Earth Ireland says the bill is simply a rehash of the earlier Fianna Fáil / Green Party Bill but with all the targets taken out. The draft will now be passed to the environment committee which will consult stakeholders and report to government on how to improve it.
Snowmen in twelve cities around Finland encouraged the Finnish government to draft a comprehensive and strong Climate Bill today.
The action was organised by Friends of the Earth Finland / Maan Ystävät Ry which says that the Ministerial working group on energy and climate policy currently working on the draft must table a strong and ambitious Bill in the parliament instead of continuing ineffective politics behind closed doors.
Friends of the Earth Ireland, with other members of Ireland’s Stop Climate Chaos coalition, staged a demonstration outside government buildings in Dublin today. Dressed as Homer Simpson, activists wanted to show that with the climate discussions next week in Doha, Qatar, it feels more like D’Oh!-a for Irish politicians when it comes to climate action.
The 5th September will remain as one of the brightest moments for the Finnish Big Ask campaign when Friends of the Earth Finland/Maan ystävät and other members of the Finnish Big Ask campaign coalition welcomed their MPs back to parliament by publishing the Campaign Climate Bill. After much challenging work, the Campaign Climate Bill was presented to the Minister of Environment, Ville Niinistö, in front of the House of Parliament, cheered on by the whole campaign coalition.
In 2009, Friends of the Earth Scotland was one of the driving forces in Stop Climate Chaos Coalition Scotland's (SCCS) mass lobby to push for the strongest climate legislation in the world, The Scottish Climate Change Act.
In July 2012, the Scottish Government failed to meet its first, and not very challenging, target to reduce emissions under the Act. In the light of that, SCCS decided to call for a second mass lobby to tell the government to turn the Act into Action. People from all regions of Scotland travelled to the Scottish Parliament yesterday to speak to their MSPs.
Today, NOAH (Friends of the Earth Denmark) hosted ‘The Climate Law – will it be the strongest in Europe?’ a conference with the Danish government’s climate and energy spokespeople, the leading expert on environmental legislation in Denmark, climate scientists and directors from energy and municipal organisations. At the conference, NOAH presented its case for a strong climate law, advocating for Denmark to be fossil-fuel-free by 2032 and to have a net greenhouse gas uptake in 2050 – absorbing more greenhouse gases than it emits every year.
Several thousand people attended Friends of the Earth Czech Republic/Hnutí Duha's 'Big Ask' festival in a park in central Prague. It was the second year Friends of the Earth Czech Republic/Hnutí Duha organized such a festival to raise awareness of their campaign for a climate law.
The Big Ask campaign in the Czech Republic is gaining momentum with some businesses involved in heavy industry now showing support, including Czech machinery factory, CKD Blansko, and the Czech Green Building Council.
The Finnish government has announced it will be preparing a climate bill – representing a huge step in the Friends of the Earth Finland Big Ask campaign.
The Ministry of Environment has published a preliminary survey on opportunities for a climate change act. It recommends a strong and comprehensive law to improve consistency in climate policy.
This was supported by the main newspaper in Finland, which published an editorial praising a climate change act.
Snowmen all across Finland have today come out encouraging MPs to support a just and ambitious climate policy. The snowmen stood outside the Houses of Parliament in Helsinki and in nine cities around Finland. They were pictured holding signs with two demands: a strong climate law and 40% reductions in Finland's domestic carbon emissions by 2020.
After weeks of sustained negotiations, Friends of the Earth Czech Republic / Hnutí DUHA has today won support for a climate bill from the third out of the four parties in the Czech Republic's governing coalition.
This is a strong signal for the bill's eventual successful passage through parliament, as this party, together with the opposition Social Democrats (who already support a climate bill), are likely to form the next Czech government after elections in 2014.