As international climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, reach their halfway point tomorrow, Friends of the Earth's Executive Director Andy Atkins will address a climate rally outside Parliament to call for urgent action to slash climate-changing emissions at home and abroad.

Saturday's rally, organised by the Campaign against Climate Change, follows a zero-carbon march from Hyde Park to Parliament.

Friends of the Earth's Executive Director Andy Atkins said:

"The alarm bells are ringing loudly, we must wake up to the threat of global climate change and take urgent action to tackle it.

"Wealthy nations have done most to create this crisis - they must now lead us out of it.

"This means slashing their emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2020, without carbon offsetting, and providing enough money to enable poorer countries develop cleanly.

"And David Cameron must meet his pledge to run the greenest government ever - greening our energy supplies and insulating our homes will create tens of thousands of new UK jobs, cut emissions and create a prosperous, low-carbon future."

Phil Thornhill from the Campaign against Climate Change added:

"Gridlock in the international negotiations does not stop the slide towards climate catastrophe gathering deadly pace - as we have begun to witness this year in flood-stricken Pakistan, drought-hit Russia and other places.

"It makes it all the more crucial that we transform the politics behind that impasse - and we can start at home."

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. Phil Thornhill, National Coordinator of the Campaign against Climate Change can be contacted on 02078339311 and on 07903 316331 on the day.
2. The full list of speakers is as follows: Caroline Lucas MP (leader, Green Party), John McDonnell MP (Labour), Michael Meacher MP (Labour), Andy Atkins (Director, Friends of the Earth), Maria Souviron (Bolivian ambassador), Paul Allen (Centre for Alternative Technology -pioneer, Zero Carbon Britain project), Tony Kearns (Deputy General Secretary, Communication Workers Union), Ben Brangwyn (co-founder Transition Towns), John Stewart (Chair, Airport Watch), Sophie Allain (Ratcliffe 20, Climate Camp).
3. At the talks in Cancun Friends of the Earth is calling for rich countries to cut their emissions by at least 40 per cent by 2020, without resorting to carbon offsetting, and for them to commit to this under a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol - the internationally agreed mechanism for legally-binding emissions reduction targets.
4. Friends of the Earth is also calling for sufficient money to be made available for developing countries to grow cleanly and adapt to the effects of climate change already causing damage to their people's livelihoods and families. It wants this money to come from public sources, not a global expansion of carbon markets, and for it to be governed and distributed by the UN through a new Global Climate Fund. Friends of the Earth believes the World Bank should play no part in providing, managing or distributing this money because it is one of the largest lenders for fossil fuel projects in the world.
5. The environmental campaigning charity is urging Governments to agree an approach to protecting forests which works with, rather than against, the interests of those which rely on them, and not to agree measures which would simply mean they end up in the hands of the highest bidder.
6. Friends of the Earth is also supporting the campaign for a tax on financial transactions - a Robin Hood Tax - to provide finance for developing countries to develop cleanly and adapt to the effects of climate change. For further information visit www.robinhoodtax.org.uk.