One Giant Leap for Sandbag (one small step for Ed)
Posted on 29. Sep, 2009 by annied in DECC, campaign, climate change
“Parkour cuts across the world in a particular way. They are a community already, with no barriers like the usual North and rich, South and poor. And not just Western countries,”
Bryony Worthington (right) looks on while the parkour groups warms up!
Bryony Worthington describes her reasoning behind choosing the Parkour community to demonstrate her organization, Sandbag’s, values. The One Giant Leap event near the IMAX London last Saturday was one of 100 cities in 35 countries around the world.
Her colleague Damian Morris is a Parkour aficionado himself. For him the Parkour movement perfectly synergizes what climate change campaigners are trying to achieve, “They leave no trace & are known for cleaning up the areas where they train.”
aerial
The same way Parkour practitioners focus their energy to make their bodies move in swift, fluid movements, Sandbag(.org.uk) focuses it’s energy on energy. One-third of all global carbon emissions originate from only 3300 power stations around the world. Sandbag wants world leaders to drop global power emissions by 10% now & begin the roll out of clean power everywhere. For Sandbag, clean power means everything from CCS to wind power. They are “technology neutral.”
Worthington’s plan for clean energy is a dual mechanism: carbon sinks that would encompass all biostorage of carbon under straight regulation and a formal carbon market. “The problem,” she explains, “is that people mix the two. Biospheric issues are less understood… it’s a permanence issue, a separate set of issues.” Biospheric issues encompass forestry: both current deforestation and reforestation programs.
“The West needs to do more or it’s an excuse for everyone else not to do more.” Though she laments, “They’ll probably do it anyway just embarrass them.” She is confident about non-Western’s countries, in particular China’s ability to adjust their carbon emissions, “When China says it’s going to do something, it generally does it.”
what's over Minister Miliband's head
DECC Minister Ed Miliband is largely responsible for emissions policy in the UK. He popped by for a quick chat with the Parkour group. Miliband’s ability to forge even effective domestic energy reform has thus far remained over his head. He came to ask everyone to sign up to “Ed’s Pledge,” his own climate campaign. “The idea is for me to go to Copenhagen with as many people behind me as possible.” Sadly he wasn’t dressed to try Parkour. But maybe if he had he could have picked up a tip or two about moving fluidly to use during negotiations both in the UK next month and at Copenhagen in December.
Want to know what the World Bank says about the upcoming Cop15 negotiations & energy technology? Click on the solar pannels:
technology transfer is key for developing countries to grow clean