inister Ed Miliband came out to meet Climate Chaos Coalition (CCC) protesters who had gathered outside his Department of Energy and Climate Change offices this evening to urge him to put a stop to the use of "climate-wrecking dirty coal power." He responded to some critical questioning about the government dragging its feet over renewable energy with claims that he was working hard on a similar agenda to the protesters and was very aware of the challenges we face over climate change.

Although many were unconvinced by some of his answers (and may suspect that government policy in this area is more driven by the Treasury and the Department for Transport than the DECC) everyone present was impressed by his willingness to come and spend almost fifteen minutes in the rain talking with the protesters and making a genuine attempt to answer the questions and criticisms.

He ended by thanking everyone for raising public awareness of the issues by taking action in the way we have, and also stressed the importance of groups such as the CCC keeping up the pressure in the run up to the UN climate summit in Copenhagen in December, where decisions taken will be crucial for the future of the planet.

Leaders of some of the organisations in the CCC had earlier met with the minister to impress on him the vital importance of abandoning coal for power generation unless and until 100% efficient carbon capture and storage can be proven to work. The public consultation on a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth closed last Wednesday, Ed Miliband has now to make his decision.

Other speakers at the vigil included Ashok Sinha, Director of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, while Christian Aid provided a fine campaigning choir in clerical garb which performed a number of well known tunes with new climate-friendly lyrics which others present joined in - and for once everyone was really singing from the same song sheet. The coalition involves virtually all of the major environmentally concerned groups in the UK, including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the Campaign Against Climate Change, as well as faith groups, aid agencies and many others - a total of over 100 organisations with a total membership of more than 11 million.

More pictures with the same report on Demotix:
 http://www.demotix.com/news/miliband-faces-climate-critics

and as usual, more still on My London Diary in a few days.