Christian charities are involved in planning and participating in the ‘Restore Nature Now’ march in London on Saturday 22nd June 2024. The march – from midday at Park Lane – aims to be the biggest gathering of campaigners for nature and climate that the UK has seen. Columban Justice, Peace and Ecology team members will be there.
In advance, an ecumenical service ‘Creation Cries Out’ has been organised for 11am at the Jesuit Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception at Farm Street. Christian groups will be gathering here. The service is a collaboration between A Rocha UK, Green Christian, Christian Climate Action, Operation Noah and others. Included is a children’s outdoor nature-based church. “We are calling for our leaders to demonstrate genuine leadership and take meaningful action to safeguard creation,” says James Trewby, Justice, Peace & Ecology Co-ordinator.
Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, the Laudato Si’ Movement, Westminster Justice and Peace and Eco-Congregation Scotland have also all said they will be joining the march to Downing Street. The Columbans, for whom caring for creation and protecting diversity is part of their mission, recently embarked on a rewilding project at their headquarters in Solihull, including bringing in four hives of bees to mark World Bee Day on 20th May.
The asks of ‘Restore Nature Now’ are:
Providing more funding to ensure a nature-friendly farming approach
Making polluters pay for the damage they do to the environment
Creating more space for nature by expanding and improving protected areas and public land
Putting a legal right to a healthy environment in law – clean air and water and access to nature for all communities
Delivering fair and effective climate action that means we at least halve UK emissions by 2030.
The march, which is both a celebration of UK nature and a protest for urgent political action on the nature and climate emergencies, is backed by a wide-range of nature, wildlife and climate groups and campaigners. The peaceful, family-friendly event is supported by a diverse group of dozens of wildlife and environment organisations (including the RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts, The Climate Coalition, WWF-UK, National Trust, WWT, Woodland Trust, Wildlife and Countryside Link, and Rewilding Britain) who are warning that the general election in July 2024 must be a turning point for nature.
‘Restore Nature Now’ aims to bring tens of thousands of people together to call on all political parties to take action to restore nature and tackle climate change in the UK, which is one of the worst nations for nature loss. In the UK, one in six wildlife species are at risk of extinction. The Office for Environmental Protection has said that the UK is ‘largely off track to meet its environmental ambitions and must speed up and scale up its efforts in order to achieve them’. And the Committee on Climate Change has analysed UK action as ‘insufficient to meet emission reduction targets’ and reported that the UK is no longer seen as a climate leader.
The UK is known as a nation of nature-lovers and polls have revealed high levels of concern over inadequate UK climate and nature action. Results from two nationwide surveys conducted by The Wildlife Trusts showed that nature matters to people across the electorate, with 93 percent of voters reporting that they believe nature loss is a serious threat to humanity.
