Chiswick Residents Call for More Climate Action After Cop26
Both local councils asked to disinvest from fossil fuels
Three generations of a Chiswick family residents demonstrating on climate change
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A group of Chiswick residents assembled at Turnham Green station last Saturday (6 November) as part of a global day of action for climate justice.
They included three generations of one local family who later joined with thousands with thousands of concerned citizens, NGOs and charities such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth in central London. The demonstration took place as world leaders were meeting in Glasgow for the UN climate talks to negotiate the rules, guidelines and cooperation needed to tackle climate change.
The local contingent had the message “Earth’s on fire” and they were highlighting what they described as the councils’ and government’s hypocrisy in claiming to all that was possible on climate whilst continuing to support fossil fuels here and abroad.
Hounslow Council’s £1.1bn pension fund currently invests £45m in fossil fuels and Ealing Council’s £1.2bn pension fund invests £40m.
Karolina Adamkiewicz, Chiswick resident and mother to 4-year-old Gabriel and 1-year-old Maxine, said, “We are joining Greenpeace in central London today in support for climate justice. We need to drastically and urgently reduce emissions by ending our toxic relationship with fossil fuels. How can Hounslow council promise to be transitioning to net zero, when its own pension fund invests millions in polluting and climate warming fossil fuels. The hypocrisy has to end!
“The UK government must also pull the plug on planned new fossil fuel projects here in the UK – including a coal mine in Cumbria, oil drilling in Surrey and the Cambo oil field – and pull its investment in a new gas mega-project in Mozambique.
“Instead of financing climate-wrecking fossil fuels, the government should put its money in clean energy and green infrastructure that could create over a million new green jobs across the country.”
Ealing Friends of the Earth assembled outside Ealing Town Hall on the day of action before taking part in the march and rally in Trafalgar Square.
Nic Ferriday, member of Ealing Friends of the Earth, said, “We stood outside Ealing Town Hall to highlight the vital role that councils and local communities have to play in addressing the threat of climate change. We hear fine words from our politicians and we see a few minor actions, but what is needed now is genuine commitment to make the wholesale changes necessary to bring CO2 emissions down to ‘net zero’. Only if we do this will we save Ealing, the UK and the world from catastrophic climate change.”
Members of the Hounslow Green Party also joined tens of thousands of other protestors on , the Global Day for Climate Justice and marched from the Bank of England to Trafalgar Square.
Stephen Clark, the Green Party candidate for Brentford West in next year’s local elections, who joined the march, said, “It is great to see that so many share our view that we need immediate and strong action at the COP26 conference to help mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. The time for talking is past, we must act together now. The recent budget, with the cynical reduction in Air Passenger Duty on short flights was a lost opportunity to send a positive message to the world”.
Both Hounslow and Ealing councils have declared 'climate emergencies' and claim to be doing everything possible to reduce their carbon footprint. We asked both councils for a response to the demand that their pension funds should disinvest in fossil fuels but did not receive a response.
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November 14, 2021
