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Dear John,
It’s sweltering. Our planet is literally, and tragically, on fire. The Bank of England could start to turn this emergency around - by stopping billions of pounds going to fossil fuels and instead kickstart the green transition. That’s the message we took to Mark Carney a fortnight ago.
In the 90 minutes we were outside the Bank, thousands walked, cycled or bussed passed us, and hundreds took a leaflet about the campaign. Photojournalists snapped away, the Guardian Live Blog shared our pictures and quotes and one Bloomberg journalist asked Carney in the press conference afterwards what he had to say to us!
Young supporter Lowell came to help at the action (and wore the Mark Carney mask!). He emailed me afterwards with some lovely and uplifting words about his experience: |
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“I've been to a few climate protests but this was one of the most effective I've seen. The messaging was clean, actionable, and united around a single purpose.
It felt like we were there to powerfully and positively challenge, inform and bring about change.
It made me realise how much my voice really matters and how much you I can actually, easily do to bring about much needed change. And it was fun and friendly, and just exciting to be a part of. Very inspiring!” |
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We were there because Mark Carney was releasing the Bank’s latest Financial Stability Report in a press conference. You can read our full response to it here and check out the great coverage in the Guardian Live Blog, Financial News and the Telegraph (unfortunately these last two articles are behind paywalls). |
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In the press conference, Lucy Meakin from Bloomberg asked Carney:
"What would you say to the climate protesters outside who believe the BoE (Bank of England) haven’t put their money where their mouth is when it comes to climate change? |
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In response Carney recogised the BoE does need to walk the walk. He talked about the steps the Bank’s taken so far in setting up the framework for assessing the climate-related risk on its balance sheet, but he doesn't yet talk about greening their QE (quantitative easing) programme, which would be a huge step forward. You can watch the four minute interaction here. |
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One of the main reasons the photographers came down to our action, was to witness us delivering our growing petition calling on Carney to kickstart the green transition now.
In the few weeks before, heroic Positive Money local groups around the UK gathered hoards of signatures on local highstreets; hundreds of supporters shared the petition with their friends online; and over five days we gathered nearly 2000 signatures at Glastonbury Festival - taking the combined total to nearly 10,000!
Everything we’ve done together - whether it’s sign the petition, tell our friends, join an action, or donate to Positive Money - is changing our financial system.
As Lowell said after the action: “It was really easy to show up, make your voice count and feel like you'd made a real difference."
So if you ever find yourself at home feeling angry at the state of things, I hope you can take some encouragement from Lowell’s experience. We all have a voice, and we can get out together and use it to make positive change happen. Thank you for all you do. Stay cool,
Rachel, Hannah and the rest of the Positive Money team PS: You can read the full write-up and see more pictures from our action on our blog here.
PPS: Sorry this email is coming a week later than we intended - after a busy and fruitful spring and early summer, half the Positive Money office team came down with a bug! But we’re back to fitness now and excitedly planning the next stages of our green campaign. |
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