STEP SEVEN: Get your MP on board
Your next step is to get more political, and take your arguments to your MP – standard stuff for a climate (or any) campaign, but remember that you’ve got the fully unique angle of health. Your MP will most likely be up to scratch with climate change, at least its importance, but assume zero knowledge of any relationship with health, be it negative health impact or health co-benefits.
It’s the same play as your deanery – go in as a team, have specific asks, use a convincing argument – but with a few obvious changes. First, your aims are different. You may want to use this opportunity as a way to build up a standing relationship with your MP – this will depend a lot on how responsive they are – or you may just want it to be a 'fire and forget' kind of meeting. Either way, at this initial meeting you should have a few aims and objectives.
For example:
1. Argue the case for climate change and health - the negative health impacts in the UK, the health co-benefits of policy change, and the duty of care to the population that the government and health professionals have to mitigate climate change
2. Ask your MP to write a letter arguing this case to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, urging stronger climate policy
3. Ask your MP to write a letter arguing this case to the Secretary of State for Health, urging that they make climate change a higher priority in their health agenda and that they take
climate change – both preparing for the health impacts and lowering carbon footprints – into account in all their deliberations
4. Ask for your MP to join the All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group (details here http://www.carbonneutral.com/features/appg.asp)
6. You could also ask for your MP to write to their local NHS constituent facilities, if you think they would benefit from MP encouragement, but this may be better if you have prior engagement with them and a sense of whether it would be helpful.
5. Ask for your MP to write back to you with feedback on what they did and on their responses
Keep in touch with your MP after this and think about how your meeting went. You’ll be passing on wisdom to later students, and they’ll benefit from your thoughts and the rapport you can develop with your MP.
It’s the same play as your deanery – go in as a team, have specific asks, use a convincing argument – but with a few obvious changes. First, your aims are different. You may want to use this opportunity as a way to build up a standing relationship with your MP – this will depend a lot on how responsive they are – or you may just want it to be a 'fire and forget' kind of meeting. Either way, at this initial meeting you should have a few aims and objectives.
For example:
1. Argue the case for climate change and health - the negative health impacts in the UK, the health co-benefits of policy change, and the duty of care to the population that the government and health professionals have to mitigate climate change
2. Ask your MP to write a letter arguing this case to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, urging stronger climate policy
3. Ask your MP to write a letter arguing this case to the Secretary of State for Health, urging that they make climate change a higher priority in their health agenda and that they take
climate change – both preparing for the health impacts and lowering carbon footprints – into account in all their deliberations
4. Ask for your MP to join the All Party Parliamentary Climate Change Group (details here http://www.carbonneutral.com/features/appg.asp)
6. You could also ask for your MP to write to their local NHS constituent facilities, if you think they would benefit from MP encouragement, but this may be better if you have prior engagement with them and a sense of whether it would be helpful.
5. Ask for your MP to write back to you with feedback on what they did and on their responses
Keep in touch with your MP after this and think about how your meeting went. You’ll be passing on wisdom to later students, and they’ll benefit from your thoughts and the rapport you can develop with your MP.
