Action

This action has now ended - hundreds of people uploaded photos which we will be presenting to George Osborne before a crucial vote in the Europe on new laws to regulate food speculation.

You can see all the photos that were uploaded here.

Please email George Osborne and ask him to support strong new laws to regulate food speculation.

Thanks for supporting WDM's food speculation campaign.

Thanks for sending an email to Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority. Your email will help remind the FSA that it needs to act in the interest of the public on the issue of food speculation. 

One more thing…

We want the FSA to really feel the impact of public pressure, so would you be able to follow up your email with a phone call?

The phone number is 020 7066 1000.

We understand that this might be a daunting thing to do, but it only needs to be a very quick call. And if you are going to do it, it's probably best to do it straight away while you remember. 

Things you might want to say when you call

• You are following up on an email you’ve just sent to Lord Turner
• You are really concerned about food speculation which is driving high prices and fuelling hunger and poverty across the world
• They need to put the public interest over the interests of the banks 
• They need to ask the government to support ‘position limits’ in EU discussions. (Position limits are the most the effective way to tackle food speculation as it limits the amount that financial speculators can bet on food prices)

A few other things to consider

• The FSA...

The idea behind this is that if the carbon stored in forests is valued and quantified, forests will be seen as more valuable standing than they would be cut down. Companies will have to earn the right to cut down trees or emit carbon either by planting new trees somewhere else (plantation) or by instituting better forest management in order to cut down on logging.

But the problem is that these programmes have actually opened the door to the legal destruction of rainforests. They have also led to the confiscation of land from local people who often do not have formal ownership deeds to the land they have used in common for generations.

This has led to the criminalisation of indigenous communities who stand accused of 'illegal' logging for continuing practices they have employed for centuries. In some cases this happens while trees are cut on an industrial scale by logging companies that have purchased the right to do so

For example, in Uganda over 22,000 people were evicted from their land at gunpoint to allow UK firm New Forest Company to plant trees to earn carbon credits.

REDD+ threatens the survival of indigenous peoples and forest-dependent communities and could result in the biggest land grab of all time.
...

Scotland has a world-leading climate change act with ambitious but achievable targets to reduce carbon emissions by 2020 and 2050. But these can only be achieved if public money finances our transition to a low carbon society.

In order to meet the first target, eight years from now, the next Scottish budget must properly fund action to cut Scotland’s carbon emissions.

As the next budget is being prepared, WDM Scotland is working with Stop Climate Chaos Scotland on a campaign to make sure that public funding for action on climate change is given priority.

What we would like you to do

If you live in the following constituencies then your MSP is an important decision-maker in the budget process. We need your help.

Click on the link to your constituency to join this Stop Climate Chaos Scotland e-mail campaign:

• Aberdeen South and North Kincardine: Maureen Watt MSP, Convenor of the...

Decades of increasing emissions have meant the UK owes a massive climate debt to the world’s poorest people to compensate for climate devastation already caused. With every ton of carbon dioxide released, crops continue to be destroyed, water becomes scarcer, disease continues to spread at an unprecedented level, and weather related disasters become more common. Ultimately, more and more lives are wrecked, and the climate debt continues to increase. 

When I speak with campaigners from the global south about climate debt, it quickly becomes apparent that whist they believe paying the debt is critical, it is also essential that the debt does not continue to grow. This is why WDM played a critical role in campaigning for the Climate Change Bill, which became an Act in 2008. Together with our allies around the UK, we pushed for, and won, the strongest climate change legislation in the world. What made this such a powerful piece of legislation was that it was supported by all political parties, not only the ruling Labour party. 

During his time in opposition, David Cameron spearheaded the Tories in speaking out on climate change. He revamped his party’s image and boosted his green credentials by campaigning...

The European Commission and the French and US governments have all said they want to bring food speculation into the open and regulate it to stabilise prices. We need to you to help pressure the UK government to ensure that it backs proposals for regulation and not to take sides with the banks to block reform.

Email George Osborne at the Treasury, asking him to support strong and effective regulation to stop banks from betting on hunger. The Treasury is the government department which decides whether the UK will support international regulation to rein in excessive speculation on food prices

Thank you for taking action with the World Development Movement.

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Thank you for taking action on the World Trade Organisation

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In order to get a response from the Trade Commissioner it's vital that as many people as possible take part in this action.

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