25 June 2019
Actress and CAFOD ambassador Emma Rigby is backing our campaign for the UK to stop contributing to climate change.
Emma, who just finished appearing in the West End’s Witness for the Prosecution, is set to join thousands of campaigners on the streets of London on 26 June to lobby her MP on the issue.
Emma has welcomed Prime Minister Theresa May’s recent announcement of a new target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, but says the UK needs to do more and draw up a detailed plan to reach the target.
The actress, who is expecting to meet St Helens North MP Conor McGinn in Westminster, will urge him to take action on climate change after witnessing first-hand the devastating impact of drought and conflict on families in northern Kenya.
Emma said: “Climate change is affecting people today. In the UK tackling the issue may be seen as a lifestyle choice, but in places like Kenya, it is a choice between life or death.”
Emma travelled to northern Kenya with CAFOD in 2017 after a DEC appeal was launched to raise money for millions of people on the brink of famine.
She said: “Through no fault of their own, the drought caused people to lose their entire livelihoods – cattle, goats, camels – which they were utterly dependent on for survival. It was heartbreaking. Climate change is an injustice.
“Despite the situation they found themselves in, I met some amazing women who had somehow found the will and the spirit to survive. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
“In order to avoid the worst effects of climate change we must limit global temperature rise to 1.5C. Going above this could multiply hunger, migration and conflict.”
Emma is urging local people to join her outside Parliament on Wednesday 26 June when more than 15,000 people are expected to lobby their MPs face-to-face for urgent action to achieve the 2050 net zero emissions target.
This would mean gases emitted by cars, planes, buildings and farms would have to be cut and not exceed the amount that could be removed from the air through measures such as tree-planting.
Scientists say this is necessary to avoid temperatures rising more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, beyond which climate change will make floods and heatwaves worse in the UK and jeopardise food and water supplies for poor communities overseas.
Campaigners will also call for MPs to pass ambitious new laws to clean up the air we breathe, tackle plastic pollution and restore nature.
Thousands of campaigners from organisations including CAFOD, WWF, Friends of the Earth, Christian Aid, the Women’s Institute, Oxfam, RSPB and National Trust are expected to descend on Parliament to lobby their MPs.
For more information contact CAFOD’s press team on +44 (0)7919 301429, or email Anna Ford (aford@cafod.org.uk) or Elouise Hobbs (ehobbs@cafod.org.uk).aford@cafod.org.ukFor more information contact CAFOD’s press team on +44 (0)7919 301429, or email Anna Ford (aford@cafod.org.uk) or Elouise Hobbs (ehobbs@cafod.org.uk).ehobbs@cafod.org.ukFor more information contact CAFOD’s press team on +44 (0)7919 301429, or email Anna Ford (aford@cafod.org.uk) or Elouise Hobbs (ehobbs@cafod.org.uk).