6th June 2015

''We need angry grannies everywhere", Mary Robinson said at the annual Grantham Institute Lecture, about climate justice. But how powerful are angry grannies? And how can communicators like me help them get involved and active?

Mary is President of the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice, UN Special Envoy on

Climate Change and a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The message of her lecture was that 2015 is the year to catalyse action on climate justice, which links human rights, development and climate change to develop policies and actions that are good for people as well as the planet. A UN conference in July will consider finance for development. The UN General Assembly is due to agree long term sustainable development goals in September. And the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP 21) in Paris in December is due to thrash out a new agreement on to limit greenhouse gas emissions. You can watch the lecture here: http://bit.ly/ 1DGR4Rt .

But, like many in both the climate change and human rights and development movements, I am frustrated at the lack of agreement among global leaders on action to tackle climate change and failure to achieve the millennium development goals. So I asked Mary how important she thought it was that individuals and communities take action in their own lives to reduce emissions and work for climate justice. "The whole issue of climate change is far too important to be left to the political leaders and negotiators," she said. Action at community, city and regional level was being noticed by summit members and the summit was influenced by last year's marches around the world. Reflecting on her own participation in the New York March she said she'd much rather have been marching behind a nearby banner that read 'angry grannies'. "We need angry grannies in every place - and angry grandfathers; people who really understand the need for action." Watch the full exchange at https://youtu.be/uFGba4qEH38?t=41m30s .

So help me. How powerful can angry grannies and grandfathers (and the rest of us who worry about these things) be? What communications tools or techniques are most effective for getting - and keeping - people involved? Thank you.