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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Local students build pipeline to end aid for oil outrage
Photo opportunity 11am, Wednesday 10 October, University Square
Contact: Name of someone who will be available to talk about the campaign and action. 07890 123456
University of Ourtown People & Planet group will be building a giant oil pipeline across University Square at 11am on Wednesday 10 October. They are protesting against spending UK development aid on climate changing fossil fuel extraction projects, and are demanding support for low carbon, renewable energy. The pipeline will be signed by members of the public, and delivered to the UK’s Department for International Development.
UK development aid is currently spent on fossil fuel extraction projects, such as the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline, by international agencies like the World Bank. These projects contribute to climate change, and often have a harmful effect on the local environment and on human rights in the area. Climate change will be hugely damaging to people all over the world, especially those in developing countries.
People & Planet spokesperson, Insert name here, said: “It is disgraceful that while the UK Government claims to be acting to tackle climate change, they continue to fund projects which will result in massive carbon emissions in the future. We are asking the Department for International Development to prioritise renewable energy instead.”
People & Planet co-ordinator, Insert name here, said: “The Department for International Development exists to alleviate poverty. Climate change will hit the poorest first and hardest — that’s why we are demanding an end to funding which contributes to climate change. It’s a contradiction for the UK to spend money earmarked for poverty reduction on fossil fuels.”
Contact: Insert name here 07890 123456
ENDS
Notes for editors
Ditch Dirty Development is a campaign of the national student organisation, People & Planet. For more information see: peopleandplanet.org/ditchdirtydevelopment, phone 01865 245678 or email climate@peopleandplanet.org
The campaign focuses on the role of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and is calling on DFID to produce an energy and climate change strategy which commits them to ensuring their activities actively contribute to global emissions reductions and increase access to energy services in the developing world. People & Planet believes that to do this DFID must end all support (bilateral and multilateral) for fossil fuel extraction, and massively increase support for renewable energy.
Climate change is predicted to affect people in developing countries most severely. Christian Aid reports that 185 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa could die of disease directly attributable to climate change by the end of the century. Drought and famine, caused by unpredictable rainfall, are already affecting 11 million people in east Africa. www.christianaid.org.uk/climatechange
People & Planet are also campaigning to transform the environmental performance of the UK’s universities, and are part of the national I Count campaign for both personal and political action on climate change. peopleandplanet.org/climatechange
