Letters to editor

Responding to articles in the press is an excellent way to get a conversation going about the benefits of Climate Income.

Consider all levels of media, from parish magazine to national news, special interest, online and in print.

If writing letters is your thing, join the CCL UK Media Team (email here) and hear about and share articles that offer good hooks for letters. And editors take notice when they receive several letters on the same topic.

If you have the contact and the skills, pitch an article for a national or specialist publication or news site, like this.

Suggested content for a letter to the editor:

  • Keep it brief. There will likely be contact details and letter/article writing guidelines on a national publication’s website, and possibly further style advice such as Dear Guardian: how to improve the chances of your letter appearing in print.
  • Keep it polite. Don’t make it about an individual or organisation – we’re all in this together.
  • This always works best if you are responding to an item in their paper/site. For example, for local publications, it could be about local pollution or a piece about the countryside, flooding, effects of weather, etc – or about something you have done in the catchment area of the paper, e.g. wrote to your MP, attended a local event. Sum this up in a sentence or two.
  • Suggest that the quickest and kindest response to climate change and air/sea pollution is the introduction of a climate income.
  • You could use this definition of a climate income:

Fossil fuels are charged a pollution fee at source, then this money is divided equally between UK people.

It works by raising the cost of fossil fuels but gives people the money to cope with the price rise until cleaner, more efficient and cheaper technologies are available.

It also gives business the motivation and time to change from fossil fuels to cleaner energy.

  • Finish with an action – invite the readers to write to their MP and visit citizensclimatelobby.uk for more information, or tell them when the next local meet up takes place.
  • Include your first and last name (and title if preferred), phone number/email and postal address. Most papers will not publish without an address supplied, though you can ask them to withhold your address from publication.

Good luck! And do email us a copy of your letter and any publication success.