Open letter on the 2020 Climate Conference
The Soil Association, alongside a group of 62 organisations ranging from Greenpeace to the Women’s Institute, has signed the Climate Coalition’s open letter to Boris Johnson.
The Climate Coalition is a voice for change who are working hard to bring organisations together to call for action on the climate crisis.
The letter calls for the Prime Minister to write a new chapter in history by taking steps to secure a safe climate ahead of the United Nations Climate Summit this November - also known as COP26. This is an opportunity to lead the world into a cleaner, greener future, but first we need to highlight the solutions to climate change.
The letter says:
- Climate change is already causing devastation to people and wildlife. Everything must be done to achieve the target in the Paris Agreement to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C.
- To achieve this target, we must work with our allied nations, as well as focusing on national decarbonisation.
- The UK must maximise cooperation with China and the EU to encourage biodiversity and climate action at other summits this year and in trade deals.
- The UK Government must adopt a more ambitious 2030 target to get on track to net-zero, as part of the UK's forthcoming Paris climate pledges (or nationally determined contributions – NDCs).
- We urge the UK Government to act on the priorities laid out in the Glasgow Action Plan. These priorities aim to increase support for the most vulnerable around the world and our precious natural ecosystems and also deliver additional benefits in the UK.
Read the full letter here and the Glasgow Action Plan.
Joining others in a year of climate action
We’re pleased to join with others to call for a game-changing climate summit and establish the UK as a world leader on the green economy. Specifically, the Soil Association wants to highlight the need to tackle climate change through agroecological food production, supporting tree planting on farms and significantly reducing farm inputs like pesticides and fertilisers.
Gareth Morgan, Soil Association Head of Farming & Land Use Policy, said:
“It’s really good that the Soil Association is able to align itself with the Climate Coalition to underline the need for the UK to be ambitious in its agenda for the Glasgow climate summit. We are particularly pleased to see that the Coalition is highlighting that climate action needs to include agroecological food production and agroforestry along with measures to significantly reduce pesticide and fertiliser application.”
What's happening next?
Along with our members and supporters we want to highlight the vital need to tackle climate change and make sure that agroecological food and farming is at the heart of the response to climate change. We will be working closely with the Climate Coalition in coming months and hope that our supporters will want to join in with our Coalition activity over the course of this year. We’ll let you know about the ways that you can get involved soon.