Follow us on Twitter
Let's be friendsSince the Government’s ‘re-capitalisation’ (or bail-out) in 2008, the taxpayer owns 70% of the Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS). However, the Government has failed to stop RBS-NatWest investing in fossil fuels and projects linked to human rights abuses and climate change.
Early Day Motion 880 calls on the Government to use its majority stake in RBS to prioritise climate change as a principal concern in RBS’s lending decisions. The need for environmental and climate change regulation must be considered just as seriously as financial regulation if we are to battle the climate crisis as well as the financial crisis. EDM 880 recognises that to tackle climate change, an effective and committed transition within the finance sector from investing in fossil fuels to investing in renewable energy projects is absolutely essential. This is a crucial action to take to support People & Planet, Platform and WDM’s legal challenge of the Government’s failure to manage RBS’s investments in the public interest.
Lobby your MP
How to lobby your MP, What to send your MP, Why it’s important to take this action.
An Early Day Motion (EDM) is a type of parliamentary petition. We need a mass of MPs signing up to EDM 880, asking questions in Parliament and making RBS-NatWest funding climate chaos into an issue which the Government cannot ignore.
How:
Write to them. You can download and adapt our template lobbying letter in Word format or in open office format, edit with your own details and send to your MP. For advice on writing to your MP, see the Groups Guide
Email them. You can use the Write to Them website to email your MP in your own words. Check out the key points and remember to ask them to sign EDM 880.
Get a face to face meeting. There are some great tips for this kind of lobbying in the Groups Guide
Consider your method of communication. Have you already built up a relationship with your MP? Think about how you would normally communicate with them — hand written letters, emails, face to face — and of course what has and has not been successful in the past. Talk to other students for advice and tips on your MP if you haven’t yet lobbied them.
To find out if your MP has already signed the EDM, visit the EDM website. If they have already signed, how about writing to them to let them know that you support them, and urge them to take further action?
Key points to make to your MP:
RBS are the UK high street bank with largest investments in fossil fuel projects
RBS are now approximately 70% publicly owned
The government should call on RBS to prioritise climate change in lending decisions.
Remember to ask your MP to sign EDM 880!
What:
Download the template lobbying letter in Word format or in open office format, edit with your own details and send to your MP.
The letter is designed to be a template, it will be more effective if you personalise it and tap into your MP’s interests and concerns. Try doing some some research into your MP’s voting record and position on issues such as climate change, the bank bailouts and regulation of the financial sector. They Work For You is a fantastic and accessible source for this information.
For more information on how MPs respond to e-campaigning, and how to make your lobbying more effective, check out Fairsay research into lobbying MPs.
Why:
Lobbying MPs is a staple of our democracy, and an important tool to retain MP accountability to the public. It is especially pertinent within the Ditch Dirty Development campaign. With 75% of RBS’s voting shares in public ownership, bailed out with taxpayers’ money, the time for public scrutiny of RBS’s investments in fossil fuels is now. The Government must not be allowed to invest our money in the destruction of our climate. Getting large numbers of MP signatures attached to this EDM will help raise the issue within Parliament, and send a strong signal to the Government that action is demanded.
This action is vital in supporting People & Planet, WDM and Platform’s legal challenge of the Government’s failure to manage RBS’s investments in the public interest. To further support the legal challenge email the Treasury and tell them to manage their 75% share ownership of RBS in favour of the solutions to climate change, instead of the causes of climate change.
Full Text of EDM 880: RBS and Climate Change
25 February 2009.
Martin Horwood, Lib Dems
That this House notes that one of the most significant outcomes of the recent financial crisis has been the Government’s acquisition of a majority stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS); further notes that RBS has been identified by campaign groups People and Planet and Platform as the UK bank that is the most heavily involved in financing the expansion of fossil fuel projects around the world, and that the carbon dioxide emissions embedded in RBS’s project finance in 2006 were calculated to be greater than the carbon dioxide emissions of Scotland itself; believes that the fact that banks play such a large role in providing finance to projects that are exacerbating climate change has been wholly unaddressed in Government policy; further believes that there is an urgent need for the Government’s new banking regulations to include environmental concerns as well as financial concerns; calls on the Government to use its majority share in RBS to prioritise climate change as a principal concern in RBS’s lending decisions; further calls on the Government to require RBS to calculate, publish and cap embedded emissions resulting from its lending to fossil fuel projects, and to set annual targets for reducing these emissions; and further calls on the Government to promote RBS investments in renewable energy, new green jobs and the infrastructure needed to decarbonise the economy.
