Chuka Umunna MP

This week, Secretary of State for Climate Change Ed Miliband joined Chuka and Charlie Kronick, Senior Climate Adviser to Greenpeace at Lambeth Town Hall in Brixton for a question and answer session.

After speaking of the importance of getting a global climate change deal this week at United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, he answered questions and heard the views of Brixton residents.

Ed Miliband will be one of the UK’s principal representatives, along with the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, at the Copenhagen Conference this month.

At the Conference, the crucial next stage of the UN’s climate change strategy will be discussed. More than sixty five world leaders will be in attendance including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, who was the first leader to announce that he would attend in person.

The stakes could not be higher – the conference provides a unique opportunity to agree an effective, fair and ambitious deal for reductions in carbon emissions. The British government has stated its aim for new binding targets to prevent temperature rises.

Ed Miliband came to our area on the eve of the crucial talks to hear the views of an area which is fast becoming the Green capital of London and Britain’s first inner-city experiment in low-carbon living. As well as being designated an official Low Carbon Neighbourhood, the Transition Town Brixton Movement and the Brixton Green Project are helping to build the country’s first inner city model of a low-carbon future.

Nearby, Sustainable Streatham and the Hyde Farm Climate Action Network are having a impact in reducing our area’s carbon footprint.

At the end of the event, the Minister said he would take on board the views voiced in Brixton, particularly the strong desire for a global deal, when he goes to Copenhagen.

Sign Ed’s Pledge to help push for a global deal on climate change.  More photos of the event can be viewed here.