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Hard Rain Project: Solutions for Rio
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Rt Hon Caroline Spelman MP Welcomes Hard Rain Project: Solutions for Rio and Calls for Positive Action at Rio+20.
September 2011
Carbon Connect’s recent evening reception showcased the Hard Rain Project, presenting images from the globally-viewed photographic exhibition and hearing speeches that underlined the importance of global sustainability solutions in the run up to the Rio Earth Summit in 2012.Over 80 delegates from the UK Parliament, international embassies and environmental industries heard from Rt. Hon Caroline Spelman MP, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Meg Hillier MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.
In her speech, Ms. Spelman praised the exhibition’s photos for ‘expressing the challenge (of climate change) better than any of us could say in words.’ She went on to stress the economic opportunities afforded by climate change and the role that industry can play in pushing the agenda, ‘adapting to climate change isn’t just an environmental imperative, it’s an economic imperative too… Defra is looking to establish a range of partnership projects working with business, govt and civil society to develop solutions to support and develop more sustainable lifestyles.’ The Secretary of State also expressed some optimism about next year’s event in Brazil, ‘we must be ambitious, it is imperative that we emerge from these negotiations with a set of achievable outcomes and reforms’.
Ms. Hillier was frank about existing measures to mitigate climate change, saying ‘Hard Rain represents a charge sheet to the politicians of governments of the world. They (the photos) represent a direct challenge to those in positions of influence and power.’ However, she went on to praise the ‘shared sense of priority’ across British political parties on the issue of climate change and called for the government to ‘meet the ambitious targets they’ve set themselves’. She ended by emphasising the bottom-up nature of the solutions, saying ‘if we have learned anything in our march to tackle this issue, it’s that politicians cannot do it alone and we need to take the message to grass roots.’
The event ended with Lloyd Timberlake, chief advisor to the Hard Rain Project, speaking about their new exhibition. He has selected 30 examples of sustainable solutions from 30 countries, which have been photographed by Mark Edwards to form the latest display. Speaking about the solutions Lloyd said, ‘The solutions aren’t a competition, we’re trying to be provocative. So, we’re honouring France for sticking with nuclear, we’re honouring Germany for abandoning nuclear. We’re trying to make people think and argue and find out for themselves what the solutions are.’
UNEP will launch the new display at the Rio Earth Summit in 2012. After this, the exhibition will tour the world, beginning with the 30 countries whose solutions are featured, with additional examples of solutions emerging from those countries.
This event was supported by the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) and the Respect Forum for Sustainable Business.
Watch a video of the event
Watch a video of the event
For more details about the Hard Rain Project, please visit their website.
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