A Year of Climate Action

 

 

Week 7: Sign the Climate Emergency declaration & listen to the Summit sessions

by | 27 Feb, 2020 | Climate Change, Political action

The National Climate Emergency Summit  in mid-February was a crucial gathering of advocates and experts on the climate crisis we face.

A key outcome of the summit was the Safe Climate Declaration which you can read and sign on to online.

All of the sessions at the Summit were recorded, and you can watch the videos of the main sessions, and listen to podcasts of the breakout sessions.

I’m particularly interested in the political and democratic dimensions of the climate challenge, and these were some of my favourite sessions of the summit.

In particular the Democracy Reboot session, chaired by Kerry O’Brien, and featuring Peter Garrett, Zali Steggall and John Hewson, which is a video recording.

6: Advocate for the Climate Change Act

by | 16 Feb, 2020 | Climate Change, Political action

Zali Stegall (the independent who ousted Tony Abbott in the last election) is introducing a Climate Change bill to Parliament on 23 March.

Zali is calling for a conscience vote by MPs and asking all of us to contact our local members and urge them to vote for the Climate Change Act.

I watched most of the livestream of the National Climate Emergency Summit and one of the strongest messages was that we HAVE to make more noise, advocate more strongly for action with our local MPs, demand that they take action on our behalf.

At the Climate Act Now website, you can:

  • Sign the petition calling on your MP to vote for the Climate Change Act, but very importantly, also:
  • Follow up with a personalised email to your MP,
  • Spread the word even further.

5: Get inspired by the National Climate Emergency Summit

by | 10 Feb, 2020 | Blog, Climate Change

This Friday 14 and Saturday 15 February a full house of climate advocates and activists will be meeting in Melbourne for the first National Climate Emergency Summit.

Even if you could get to Melbourne, the summit is sold out. But you can watch the plenary sessions by livestream for a donation. The breakout sessions will be recorded and available as podcasts after the summit.

It is appropriate that this summit is held in Melbourne, because the global Climate Emergency Declaration movement began in late 2016 with the City of Darebin in the north of Melbourne voting to ‘recognise that we are in a state of climate emergency. We voted that the climate crisis requires urgent action by all levels of government, including local councils.’

Just three years on entire countries (UK, Ireland, Portugal, Canada, France and Argentina) and major cities like Sydney, New York, Auckland, Milan, Amsterdam and Madrid have declared a climate emergency.

There are now more than more than 1200 jurisdictions in 26 countries who have declared a climate emergency.

The evidence would suggest that declarations alone do not change policy or lead immediately an emergency scale response – see the expansion of Heathrow Airport in London, or Canada’s ongoing mining of tar sands.

But at its most promising, an official declaration of climate puts a government on a “wartime mobilisation” that places climate change at the centre of policy and planning decisions. 

Anyway, the program for this summit goes well beyond the declaration of the emergency. It has a very practical focus on what a climate emergency transition could look like at local, national, and global levels.

Sessions with keynote speakers will be live streamed, with all breakout sessions recorded and released as podcasts. Keynote speakers include: Michael Mann (US climate scientist); Peter Garrett (former Minister in Rudd & Gillard governments); Zali Steggall (the independent MP who replaced Tony Abbot); Greg Mullins (head of Emergency Leaders for Climate Action); Ross Garnaut (economist, author of the 2008 Garnaut Report) and Carmen Lawrence (former Premier of WA and psychologist focused on the climate transition).

Make a donation to watch some of the livestream here.

4: Make a submission on the Browse LNG project

by | 3 Feb, 2020 | Blog, Climate Change, Political action

Woodside are seeking approval of their Browse/Burrup LNG hub projects off the north-west of Australia.

For too long, LNG has been mistakenly described as a cleaner fossil fuel, or a transition fuel, but the scale of carbon emissions from LNG projects in WA is staggering.

The Clean State campaign in WA, through the Conservation Council of WA, has been a strong advocate for action on climate change in this resource driven state. All of this information about LNG comes from their website, with data and analysis by Climate Analytics:

LNG produces 2.5 times the pollution from the burning of black coal in WA.

The proposed Burrup LNG gas hub will emit 95mtpa of carbon pollution until 2070, making it equivalent to 24 of the largest, dirtiest coal fired power stations in WA. 

Greenhouse gas emissions of this scale make a mockery of international targets set in Paris.

In addition, current WA LNG pollution is cancelling out all the savings made by the Australian Renewable Energy Target each year.

Woodside’s Burrup Hub Project will produce nearly FOUR TIMES the carbon pollution of the Adani coalmine.

The Western Australian EPA is currently reviewing Woodside’s new LNG hub proposals.

Make your own submission urging the EPA, in the strongest possible terms, to reject the proposal. Fossil fuels need to stay in the ground.

Clean State have made it easy for you – with an email submission form, which you can send from here.

Submissions are due by 12 February 2020.