Committee on Climate Change
Independent advisors to the UK Government on tackling and preparing for climate change
Martyn Williams – Environmental Campaigner |
 Martyn Williams is an environmental campaigner who has spent 14 years working with Friends of the Earth specialising in Parliamentary campaigning. He led the Big Ask campaign which was instrumental in ensuring the formation of the Climate Change Bill. He has campaigned for private members bills on issues ranging from fuel poverty to recycling. Since the Climate Change Bill was enacted, Martyn has been on sabbatical, renovating a 200 year old Georgian town house, and fitting it out with modern foam insulation to make it energy efficient. 1. How were you involved in campaigning for the Climate Change Act? I drafted the first Climate Change Bill (introduced to Parliament just before the 2005 election) and led Friends of the Earth’s successful campaign – The Big Ask – to make such a law a reality. Initially this meant making the case for a new Bill in public meetings with MPs in town and village halls across the country, and setting out why a plan for cutting emissions that lasted longer than a 5-year Government was desperately needed. We persuaded tens of thousands people to lobby their MP, put on gigs and events with people like Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Razorlight, attended festivals and developed media stories to ensure that a strong case for the Bill was made. As support grew, the Government eventually agreed to introduce a Bill – and this meant an increasing amount of advocacy work with key politicians and officials. This peaked as the Bill reached Parliament, with a massive effort to persuade Parliamentarians of crucial changes to strengthen the proposed new law – such as taking into account the impact of aviation and shipping. 2. What do you think of the Government’s recent record? The Government got off to a slow start – promising significant cuts in carbon dioxide emissions and failing to deliver. And, with the possible exception of a strong green budget in 1999, despite promising to put the environment at the heart of Government, in reality it was often consigned to the margins. Michael Meacher tried extremely hard to champion green issues but it’s been under the Miliband brothers and the creation of DECC that things have started to improve, most notably with the passing of the Climate Change Act. But there is still a long way to go. Policies such as airport expansion should be scrapped, Government must ensure local authorities play their part in cutting emissions and we need to show greater leadership on the international stage. 3. Are you hopeful that we will see an agreement at Copenhagen? Hopefully the world will wake up to the threat of catastrophic climate change and agree a strong and fair deal – but this will require rich nations to agree big cuts in their emissions of at least 40 per cent by 2020, abandoning the con of carbon offsetting and funding poorer nations so they can develop cleanly and tackle the impacts of climate change. 4. What is it that makes a good campaign? Your demand must be well thought out and rooted in the science of the problem. But people have worked on hundreds of campaigns that never become policy or law. The difference with the Climate Change Act is that we took it to the public and persuaded people that they could make it happen. Parliament may be out of favour now, but it responded to the will of the public here and it will again if people make the case loudly enough. Good campaigns win more than just the issue on which they are fought. As people realise they can be heard, they will involve themselves more in the political process. The expenses row has made many say they want nothing to do with MPs, but that is the wrong response. Democracy is more than a vote every five years – we must be able to change things by getting involved between elections. 5. Are you still in the same house which you installed solar panels on in 2004? And what further measures have you taken to reduce its carbon footprint? No, a bit of a dream house became available just after we fitted the PV, so in 2005 we moved just around the corner. I still see the panels from the train and get a warm feeling, if not any real energy! We did immediately fit solar thermal panels to the new house, which are fantastic. This house is more difficult as it is listed. I took a year off work when the Act became law to renovate it. With the big changes like the panels already done, I have mostly been hiding the plumbing with new room layouts, plus a lot of restoring windows and draught proofing. I’ve insulated every bit I can reach and ripped out lots of halogen down lighters. Once I stop using power tools, we will have cut our emissions by 40-50%. So asking the Government to reach the same level by 2020 seems perfectly reasonable. |
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