Quakers send MPs chocolate and a climate wish list

MPs have been sent a Christmas wish list and treat urging them contribute to the fund compensating for unavoidable climate impacts agreed at COP27.

chocolate coins
Quakers send MPs chocolate and a climate wish list

Quakers joined other members of the Make Polluters Pay coalition in sending the postcard to 40 MPs from across the political spectrum asking for new funding for loss and damage, additional to funds for mitigation and adaptation.

Funding must be rooted responsibility, capacity and justice

The funding must be rooted in principles of responsibility, capacity and climate justice, the coalition said in their appeal to MPs including COP26 President Alok Sharma and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, as well as Quaker MPs Catherine West and Ruth Cadbury.

Appropriately for Quakers, so often associated with the chocolate and philanthropy of their Victorian forebears, each postcard was accompanied by a bag of fairtrade chocolate coins to sweeten the deal.

Siobhan Haire, deputy recording clerk for Quakers in Britain, said: "Quakers have always believed that every human life is of equal worth, and we continue to seek to live according to that belief.

"The poorest in the world are the worst-affected by a climate crisis they did not create. Rich countries and fossil fuel companies must now contribute to the loss and damage fund agreed at COP27, to compensate these communities and allow them to rebuild."

This week Quakers also helped Peers to raise the issue of loss and damage in a House of Lords debate on overseas development spending.

Read Olivia Hanks' blog on COP27