In the South West, over the past month supporters of the UK’s leading environment and development organisations – Oxfam, Christian Aid, the RSPB, Tearfund, WWF-UK, CAFOD, Greenpeace, the Green Alliance, and the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition – have been “asking the climate question” of prospective parliamentary candidates, demanding bold and urgent action to tackle the threat of climate change.

This is an issue no prospective MP – or future government – can afford to ignore.

We hope and expect that all political parties will support policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 per cent below 1990 levels and ensure that at least 15 per cent of all energy comes from renewables by 2020.

The world’s poorest countries that have so far done the least to cause global warming but will be affected the first and most.

To prevent a human tragedy, as well as an environmental one, a future UK government must provide its fair share of funding to the developing world to assist them in adapting to climate change and to support low carbon development.

Roger James, Oxfam Campaigns South West