MP steps down to campaign for climate agreement

OneWorld UK

From Colin Challen, Labour MP for Morley and Rothwell
Tuesday 30 January 2007

Colin Challen MP, the founding chair of the All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group, has today (Tues) told Labour Party members in his West Yorkshire constituency that he is not seeking re-election at the general election in order to concentrate on campaigning for a new international environmental agreement.

The full text of the letter received by party members in Morley and Rothwell today (Tues) is as follows:

"You know that my concern for the environment goes back many years. As a regular reader of my parliamentary reports you will also know that I have devoted an increasing amount of my time since being re-elected to represent you in 2005 to the urgent issue of climate change.

"The now very obvious warming of the earth means political leaders around the world must grasp the nettle and take very serious urgent action to address the climate change problem. My experience at the Nairobi climate change talks last November made two things very clear. The first is that young Africans are already dying because of global warming. The second is that there is no agreement to change that situation at the pace the world needs to give their sisters and brothers a better hope of life.

"So we must quickly come to some agreement on how to do that and, specifically, how to find a new international framework by 2012 to replace the present international Kyoto Protocol.

"I expect shortly to be involved in further practical work to speed those changes, particularly in the developing world - notably Africa - and to further examine the economics of climate change following the report last year from Sir
Nick Stern, with whom I shall be working.

"This will be in conjunction with the Centre for Energy Policy Studies at Cambridge University and will involve the Commonwealth to ensure that the fight against climate change embraces developed, developing and undeveloped countries, each facing different environmental realities.

"I will be spending more time on this work than ever before, and eventually I want to devote 100 per cent of my time to this campaign. For this reason I have decided not to seek the nomination for the Morley and Outwood Constituency Labour Party's parliamentary candidature at the next general election.

"Of course I will continue to represent Morley and Rothwell until the next general election to the best of my ability. I would like to thank everyone who has supported me over the past few years. Being an MP is a great privilege and
representing this constituency an even greater one. I hope I have respected the trust you have placed in me and that you will understand my decision.

"With thanks for your support, solidarity and encouragement.
Yours sincerely,
Colin Challen MP"

Notes:
1: Colin Challen, 53, was first elected to his home constituency of Morley and
Rothwell in 2001. He had previously served in the RAF, worked as a postman, had run his own publishing business and spent some years as a Labour Party official in Yorkshire.

2: He was returned at the last general election with a majority of 12,343. A
Boundary Commission redistribution means the next general election will be fought for the new constituency of Morley and Outwood, most of which incorporates the present Morley and Rothwell seat.

3: He was a councillor in Hull from 1986 to 1994 and is the author of The Price of Power: the secret funding of the Conservative Party, published in 1998.

4: He founded the All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group (APPCCG) in 2005 when he also launched the 25/5 challenge, inviting fellow MPs to reduce their carbon emissions by 25 per cent by the year 2010. In 2006 he launched an independent inquiry into the possibility of cross-party consensus on climate
change, drawing responses from around the world. Spe> akers at the APPCCG in the past year have included Mikhail Gorbachev and Al Gore.

5: He is a member of the Commons Environmental Audit Committee.

6: He received the PRASEG Sustainable Energy House of Commons Award in 2005.

7: Colin Challen is currently campaigning with the Armed Services Pensions Group (http://www.afpg.info/) for equality in the payment of military pensions on which he will speak in a Commons adjournment debate tomorrow (Wed).