Stephen Williams Supports WWF Earth Hour 2010

Stephen meets with WWF representatives to pledge his support for Earth Hour 2010

On Wednesday 10th March Stephen Williams, MP for Bristol West, met with representatives from the Worldwide Fund for Nature to pledge his support for 2010 Earth Hour, which will take place on Saturday 27th March. Stephen is a strong supporter of this campaign, having taken part in WWF Earth Hour in previous years as well.

"Building on the global success of last year's Earth Hour event, momentum is building across the world once again and WWF is aiming to reach a billion people", said Stephen. "By signing up and taking part we can all show support for strong international action to tackle climate change."

WWF's Earth Hour is a global initiative taking place on Saturday 27 March 2010 between 8.30pm-9.30pm. WWF is calling on individuals, businesses, iconic landmarks and local authorities to sign up to switch off their lights for one hour to show they care about people and wildlife threatened by climate change. The initiative has become bigger than ever, surpassing all previous years' events, with over 1,100 cities and towns across the globe switching off their lights in support of Earth Hour.

Last year 88 countries got involved in the event and with 2010 seeing more than 91 countries taking part, a ripple will cross the Earth as landmarks in 25 time zones switch off. Many of the world's most iconic landmarks are on board including the Golden Gate Bridge, the Las Vegas strip, Table Mountain and the Burj Khalifa tower- the tallest building in the world.

UK landmarks pledging to switch off their lights include Piccadilly Circus and the London Eye, which will be dimming its lights for Earth Hour. Other famous buildings pledging to plunge into darkness for an hour include the Royal Albert Hall, Manchester's Trafford Centre, Stormont, Inverness Castle, Wales Millennium Stadium and Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower. Companies supporting the event include M&S, Coca-Cola and Ikea.

WWF is campaigning for a strong global response to climate change after the Copenhagen climate summit failed to deliver a sufficiently robust climate deal. To help create the public mandate here in the UK, and worldwide, for governments to agree a strong deal, WWF is calling on everyone to get involved and take part in Earth Hour.

There have been two Early Day Motions (EDMs) tabled regarding WWF Earth Hour. First was EDM 765, entitled 'Climate Change & The Earth Hour 2010 Campaign'. Not only has Stephen signed this EDM, he was in fact one of the co-sponsors of it. It states:

"That this House calls for cross-party support for WWF's Earth Hour 2010 campaign which seeks to persuade over a billion people worldwide to switch off their lights for an hour at 8.30 pm on 27 March 2010 to demonstrate to political leaders the far-reaching public desire for an urgent, fair, ambitious, binding and scientifically credible global deal on climate change; notes that the Copenhagen Accord failed to establish a sufficiently ambitious or binding framework capable of tackling the threat of climate change; further notes the urgent need for a legally binding global compact which sets stringent carbon emissions reductions targets at global and national levels; further notes that such a framework must include a mechanism for the independent monitoring and verification of progress; further calls on the Government to seek a new international mechanism to provide sustained and sufficient finance additional to existing commitments and which will be committed to support mitigation and adaptation and to prevent deforestation in developing nations; recognises the lead the UK showed at the climate negotiations in Copenhagen; and further calls on the Government to take a leadership role in securing jobs in the UK's green economy and in safeguarding lives, livelihoods and the planet."

At the time of writing this EDM has already gained the cross-party support of nearly 150 MPs, including 42 Lib Dems: a figure that is likely to continue to rise.

In addition, more recently Stephen has signed EDM 1045, entitled 'Earth Hour 2010 Campaign & The Palace Of Westminster', which was tabled by Liberal Democrat MP Dan Rogerson. It states:

"That this House supports WWF's Earth Hour 2010; notes the event's record of persuading one billion people worldwide to sign up to switch off their lights for an hour at 8.30 pm on 27 March 2010; congratulates those individuals, organisations, businesses and local authorities which have already pledged to take part; further notes that many British landmarks, including Canary Wharf, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square and the London Eye will switch their lights off; and calls on the House authorities to ensure that the Palace of Westminster and all other buildings on the Parliamentary estate take part by switching off external floodlights and non-essential internal lighting."

If you would like to keep up to date with other EDMs that Stephen has signed then you can follow this online via the following link:

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMByMember.aspx?MID=4842