Rio + 20: UK Catholics make their voice heard

There’s just less than a week to go until the beginning of Rio + 20 the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in the Brazilian city. Among the NGO’s taking part in the conference is the UK based oveaseas Catholic Development Agency Progressio. It ran a campaign in Catholic parishes across the UK asking people to write on a postcard what hopes they have for the future. Over 400 postcards were delivered on Wednesday evening to British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. The campaign found that UK Catholics were concerned about issues such as economic justice, water and food security, climate change and leaving a better world for their children and future generations.



Tim Aldred, Progressio’s Head of Policy and Communications met in person with Nick Clegg and told Lydia O’Kane that people want a better future.

“I think there is a sense of frustration that once you give people the opportunity to say, “tell us what you want”, you know here is an opportunity to tell your leaders the kind of world that you want to see, then they say, well we want a greener and fairer economy, we want food security for all, we want water resources to be taken care of, we want poverty to be eliminated, we want action on climate change.”

He adds that leaders have an opportunity to put some plans in place for a better world.

The Rio + 20 conference runs from the 20^th to the 22^nd of June.

Listen to Lydia O'Kane's interview with Tim Aldred