People & Planet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section reads like an advertisement.
Please help rewrite this article from a neutral point of view per Wikipedia policy. Mark blatant advertising for speedy deletion with {{db-spam}}. (help, talk)

People & Planet, often abbreviated to P&P, is the largest student network in the UK campaigning to alleviate world poverty, defend human rights and protect the environment. The network consists of over 55 university and college groups, more than 150 sixth form groups, individual campaigners and a support office located in Oxford. The organisation was originally founded in 1969 as Third World First by a group of students, supported by non-governmental organizations including Oxfam. People & Planet has been the driving force behind the 'Fairtrade University' movement, showing the way that they act often locally to help influence global issues.

Lord Joel Joffe CBE, then Chair of Oxfam, said of the organisation in 1999, “Over the last three years People & Planet has become an extraordinary organisation which attracts student supporters on a scale unmatched within the UK charity and campaign sector. More than any other youth organisation it is encouraging the emerging generation to see themselves as global citizens with a responsibility for taking action on global problems of poverty and the environment.”

Major successes of the network have included:

The Fairtrade campaign has created 28 Fairtrade Universities and 4 Fairtrade Schools. This has substantially increased the total amount of Fairtrade products sold in the UK, with a knock-on impact on the lives of producers in the global South.

The Green Electricity campaign which resulted in a twenty fold increase in the number of universities buying renewable electricity - saving 275,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide being released every year.

The Ethics for USS campaign persuaded the £20 billion lecturers’ pension fund to adopt a socially responsible investment policy.

Some groups are part of the People & Planet network, having the full services of the support office in Oxford, without being called 'People & Planet'.

The People & Planet group at the University of Edinburgh has attracted criticism for what some claim is the abuse of student association structures to uphold policies such as the Nestlé boycott, which are unpopular with some students. In response, a somewhat controversial "Stop People & Planet" (SPP) group was established on campus. SPP has been accused of McCarthyite-style tactics in its publication of a list of candidates which should be blacklisted in student elections on the basis of their association with the Edinburgh P&P group.[1][2]

People & Planet are one of the first charities to benefit from the new Monday Lottery that was launched on the 8th May 2005, with the organisation receiving a percentage of ticket sales.

People & Planet also operates the "Go Green Week" celebration at the University of Warwick, intended to bring attention to environmental issues.