Fwd: Newsletter Extra: Urgent Call to Action

[Susan Lees]

Dear Highgate Transitioners,

38 Degrees and Sandbag (some of you will remember that the founder Baroness Bryony Worthington came and spoke in Highgate a year or so ago) between them are encouraging people to write to their MEPS asking them to vote to not dish out a further 900MILLION tonnes of CO2 permits at a vote on Tuesday 16th April.

Please see the message and link below, and send the emails (there is useful material in the Sandbag piece which can be incorporated into the 38 degress template mail).

Thank you,

Best wishes, Sue

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sandbag Climate Campaign <no-r...@sandbag.org.uk>
Date: 13 April 2013 09:00
Subject: Newsletter Extra: Urgent Call to Action
To: su...@lees.org.uk

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Dear Friends As you know we have been calling for reform of the European carbon market since our inception in 2008. Next Tuesday, the European Parliament will vote on a crucial proposal to temporarily prevent 900m tonnes of CO2 allowances from being auctioned to participants. Auctions are now taking place on a regular basis, overwhelming an already flooded market with unneeded permits to pollute, driving prices to rock bottom. 900m tonnes is just under double the total annual emissions of the UK, so no small amount, and removing them will definitely help to rebalance the market. And if MEPs vote in favour then the Council and Commission will have a clear mandate to move quickly to introduce much needed structural reforms. If the vote is lost it may be years before we get another opportunity to fix the ETS and we will risk going in to the all important 2015 climate negotiations with severely damaged credibility. At the moment it is unclear which way the vote will go with many carbon intensive and backward looking companies lobbying fiercely against the proposal. However, Europe's most well run and efficient industries will stand to gain from the fix and many are now speaking out in favour. Every vote is going to count. Our friends at 38 Degrees have just launched an urgent call to action to persuade UK MEPs to vote the right way next Tuesday. It is particularly important that the UK supports the move as, since April 1st, we are now paying a carbon tax that means we will be paying far more for carbon than our European neighbours if the ETS is not fixed. It only takes a few seconds to complete the action so please, if you care about Europe taking meaningful action to tackle climate change, click on this link: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/eu-carbon-mep-search We will let you know as soon as we find out what the result of the vote is and how our MEPs voted. Let's hope we can persuade them to do the right thing. Best wishes Bryony, Damien, Rob and Louise

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