WDM South Manchester, the existing group in Manchester, were out on Saturday doing a huge banner drop from Shudehill multi-story car park. The story was picked up by Manchester Mule.

Environmental activists staged a rooftop protest in the city centre on Saturday morning as part of a global  day of action against reliance on fossil fuels, hanging a huge banner from the top of Shudehill multi-storey car park. The banner – five metres high and 20 metres long – read ‘Climate Change Kills’; a message to Downing Street from the Manchester branch of the World Development Movement (WDM).

The car park was chosen for its position in front of Manchester’s CIS Tower, home since 2005 to the UK’s largest solar power project. WDM Manchester spokesperson Stephen Pennells described the action as a “celebration” of the unique installation, but also an urgent call for more like it. “We’re calling on everybody, but particularly governments, to move from fossil fuels”, he said. “We want to see David Cameron live up to his promise of running ‘the greenest government ever’.”

The WDM’s main focus as to global warming is as a problem most acutely affecting the least developed societies, Pennells explained. “We want climate justice now,” he said. “We shouldn’t be giving money for green developments through World Bank loans and making the poorest countries poorer. I can’t see that we’re going to help people by giving the poorest nations more debt.” He promised a “mass vigil” highlighting these issues when Manchester hosts the Conservative party conference next Saturday, urging Mancunians “to support this, and to carry on pressing the issue of climate change.”

Read the whole story here and WDM South Manchester’s blog post here.