Practical Action supporters were marching, and waving, last Saturday at The Wave, the UK’s largest ever climate change demonstration. In London over 50,000 people surrounded Parliament – going south on Lambeth Bridge then north to Westminster and finishing near Big Ben. So many people turn up to demand a strong deal in Copenhagen, that as the event ended with an ‘all hands in the air’ disply, the tail of the march had yet to enter Parliament Square.

This was not only a very big event it was also very diverse. Organisations present ranged from the establishment – the Co-Op, Women’s Institute, WWF and RSPB – through Friends of the Earth, Oxfam and Greenpeace to the Socialist Workers Party. The organisations affiliated to Stop Climate Chaos, the organising committee, have over eleven million members – that’s far more than have joined all the UK’s political parties and, I’d guess, far more than are shareholders in the most environmentally damaging businesses.

Saturday’s Wavers showed that the British public have a very real appetite for effective action to restrain climate change. At Practical Action we know how vital this is for the world’s poorest communities. Our government says it believes the same and Gordon Brown and Ed Milliband met separate groups of Stop Climate Chaos – including Practical Action – after the march. At Copenhagen we’ll see how real the talk is.

See also: Pre-Copenhagen questions for Ed Miliband | Practical Action in Copenhagen