Activists, schoolchildren, faith leaders, parents and grandparents are among those who have united in Westminster to lobby MPs on climate and nature action.
Organisers said around 5,000 people from across the UK were planning to meet with their MPs for the mass lobby on Wednesday afternoon, which takes place amid the growing spectre of climate-driven weather extremes.
The groups aimed to put pressure on politicians to deliver funding to communities hit hardest by climate change, restore nature to create a safer and healthier future, back UK jobs and secure a greener, fairer future for all.
Ahead of these meetings, a crowd gathered in Parliament Square wearing colourful t-shirts, with some holding up artwork, flags, signs and banners reading: “Together for People”, “Make Polluters Pay” and “Worried mother trying to protect my kids and all kids”.
One activist arrived dressed as a WWF panda, the campaign group Mothers Rise Up brought a giant melting ice-cream shaped like planet Earth and Surfers Against Sewage carried a surfboard displaying the words: “Ocean + Climate Emergency”.
A large group of children could also be seen at the event holding “Act Now, Change Forever” signs.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband shared his support in a video, saying: “I want to thank you all for being in Westminster today to speak to your MP about the climate and nature crisis. You’re doing a really important thing.”
“We’re hearing you loud and clear,” he added.
Speaking to the PA news agency, campaigners cited the current droughts in the north of England and recent floods in Texas as examples of how climate impacts are already wreaking havoc on global communities.
Kate Norgrove, executive director of conservation advocacy and policy at WWF, who was planning to meet her MP Jeremy Corbyn, told the PA news agency: “Currently, politicians totally underestimate the level of support for acting on climate and nature.”
She added that the public “feel really strongly” about the crisis, pointing to the line of people from “all over the country” queuing around the block to meet their local MPs on one of the busiest days in Parliament.
Asked why the groups planned the action now, she said: “The time was yesterday really. We can feel the heat.”
A group of grandparents from across the country, who recently formed a new group called Our Grandchildren’s Climate, were also in the crowd to campaign for pensions to divest away from fossil fuels.
Grandfather-of-four, Sigurd Reimers, 80, from Taunton in Somerset, said: “We’re campaigning on behalf of the next generation or the generation beyond who are facing a fairly dire future actually, so the least I can do is take a day trip up to London and join all these other people.”
Mr Reimers, who will be meeting his local MP Gideon Amos, said he is concerned about the future state of the climate and the country when his youngest grandchild, who is a baby boy, reaches his age.
“For the past few years, being a retired person myself, I’ve been looking particularly at the role of pensioners and… how pensions are invested and how even our best pensions organisations are investing in fossil fuels still,” he added.
Mark Funnell, communications and campaigns director at National Trust, said the charity looks after a huge amount of land in the UK but is “seeing already the widespread impacts of climate change” including drought, torrential downpours and floods.
“We’re dealing with those impacts right now and we need to see more concerted action from parliamentarians to take those threats seriously,” he told PA, ahead of his meeting with Carla Denyer, his local MP for central Bristol.
On Labour’s record over the environment, he said: “We are a year in, and although the Government has got a strong manifesto and set of commitments to the environment and climate action, what we need to see is more progress on the ground.
“Green conservation groups, green charities – collectively we feel like this issue has not got the precedence it needs,” he added.
Dani Jordan, director of campaigns and communities for Surfers Against Sewage, said the organisation is focusing on the pollution, plastics and chemicals crisis in UK waterways.
But she added: “All of these issues are interconnected, so the reason we’re here today is because we need to protect and restore nature and act on the climate crisis to protect the places we love to surf.
“Political will around these issues – it comes and goes – and the importance of bringing people together with one united voice can’t be underestimated,” she said. “It’s actually been a really uplifting hopeful event.”
In his video message, Mr Miliband said the Government has “sought to put climate and nature at the heart of the agenda for Government as never before”.
He cited efforts to drive forward clean energy ambitions, repositioning the UK as a global climate leader, driving nature recovery through the UK’s first land use framework and investing in tree planting and peatland restoration.
“It’s all part of the most significant investment in clean energy, climate and nature in the UK’s history announced at last month’s spending review,” he said.
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