Outcomes
The afternoon sessions got people together to talk through and settle on ideas for action.
Here’s the ones that we know about.
- Building the movement, achieving political change AND engaging “ordinary” people in mass community demonstration
- The local media
- Human Population
- Footprinters
- Climate Justice Hunger Strike (pdf, 21 Kb)
- Marketing and Communications for the Masses
- Feed In Tariff
- More Sustainable to Sustainable Economy
- Door Knocking Day
- Agriculture
Building the movement, achieving political change AND engaging “ordinary” people in mass community demonstration.
Contact: Lisa Kendal
What we will do
Establish a core advocacy group with representatives of CCCs across the region to develop campaign strategies and coordinate skill development activities.
Establish Advocacy groups within each CAG
Develop a national symbol (see attached proposal)
Reach out to people where they meet (e.g. church groups, community etc) to provide information about climate change and a suite of options for action, from personal change to advocacy. Each CAG to specify a target number of groups to present to for the year.
Establish an ambassador program for high profile members of the community to champion the cause. Perhaps one for the region / regional Vic, or more local champions. Change them over every year.
Door knocking campaign – work in with Damien Lawson’s concept – need to do training for knockers.
Who else will we bring in?
Environment Victoria – as a conduit to the National Campaign
CANA and Climate Movement – for the National Symbol dissemination
Others?
When we will meet again?
Would like to set up a discussion group / blog / google group / Ning (don’t even know what this is!) to allow for “virtual” discussion and meetings with the core representative group.
Need to identify representatives from each group across the region.
The local media
Contact: via Dean
What we will do
1)Work effectively with local newspapers to help educate, inform and move the community in response to climate change.
2) Spend time developing a relationship with the local paper and with other newspapers further afield.
3) Identify and involve local identities.
4) Try different approaches, be creative.
5) Report events (relentlessly).
6) Recruit people with journalism skills.
Follow-up
We may contact each other via email, 4 of us who are easonably local will meet again in a month or so. The email group will share articles, info bytes, eco-literacy pieces, etc
Human Population
information on its way….
Footprinters
Action Group Conveners: Keith Altmann (MRSG) & Phil Baulch (Geelong SG)
Contact: Dean
What we will do:
- Population - stabilise and remove/reduce baby bonus (perhaps limit to first two).
- Move to closed cycle economic system.
- Housing size/type: need more materials reused, carbon footprint to be reduced over time.
- Food - buy local
- Travel - use most energy efficient
- Ideally a carbon ration per person, which would be progressively reduced.
- Progressive reduction in overall consumption of non-renewable resources.
- World wide carbon price phased in.
- Encourage competition between towns and individuals to reduce their ecological footprints.
Who else will we bring in?
- Climate groups.
- Business groups.
- Residents, municipalities.
- Local MP’s and Councillors
When will we meet again?
No decision.
Marketing and Communications for the Masses
Convenor: Patrick Blampied
Contact: Dean
What we will do:
Short Term – Pat to put together a 1 hour workshop covering the basics of commercial media, where it sits in the picture and how to maximise coverage. This session would be free to any community group that is interested.
Long Term – Find out if groups across regional Victoria would like to join a collective publicity body with a spokesperson. The aim of this body would be to get the most coverage out of the media regarding climate change and share publicity ideas. It would not aim to restrict or replace the work of local groups in local media.
Try to assist in broadening the age groups exposed to the messages, eg. beyond the ABC and local papers which are already covering the issue a fair bit but aren’t listened to/read widely by younger people.
Who else will we bring in?
Any regional Victorian climate change group that would like help with publicity.
When will we meet again?
First action: Pat to put together a workshop and send out a flyer.
Chat to Elise from BREAZE late march or april.
Feed In Tariff
Contact: via Anneke Deutsch
What we will do:
- Active campaign about feed-in tariffs
- Liaise with Energy Matters & Resource Smart
- CVGA possible co-ordinator of advocacy
- Ecomomics, rationalizations, balancing the grid, benefits, unions, grassroots, demand management, political
- Both sides of the political spectrum
- Argument for superannuation fund
Who will we bring in:
- MASG Group meeting around solar tariffs
- CVGA will follow this up (advocacy)
- MASG working group? Advocacy? Tony to work in, Laura to support advocacy.
When will we meet again?
via email
More Sustainable to Sustainable Economy
Contact: via Helga Saunders
What we will do:
- Green loans or grants for small business
- Creating incentives for improved technology eg. grants
- Facilitate big business to engage small business in green development
- Campaign for green sustainable products
Who will we bring in:
Lobby fed, local and state government to assist with rollout to reduce pollution & carbon emissions
When will we meet again?
via email
Door Knocking Day
Contact: via Damien Lawson
What we will do:
- CAC has an initiative started
- Set a day where all sorts of environment/sustainability groups all door knock
- They all work out their own key message (=> they all get ownership over the message)
- There may also be a common petition that all groups aim to get signatures for
- We would have role playing / training days beforehand at emotional level if that is all person is ready for. Could start with:
“How do you feel about this dry weather?” or
“Did you know you can get a subsidy for …?”
Who will we bring in:
All sustainability groups! And concerned individuals.
When will we meet again?
Via email. Damien to contact.
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Agriculture
Contact: via Dean
Issues/discussion
Farmers in out region are at the leading edge of climate change and can see first hand the damage it is doing to the land. The farmers produce the food and fibre that the rest of us consume.
Agriculture/farmers are often depicted by the environmental movement as a major problem in greenhouse & other environmental areas. Often figures cited about the greenhouse and other resource intensity of farming is based on ‘worst case’ and overseas data from more intensive agriculture than practiced in Australia. Many environmentalists promote ‘Certified Organic’ and vegetarianism as the only way to be sustainable. This alienates mainstream farmers and makes them unwilling to look at how they can contribute to solutions. Many farmers are in the greenhouse sceptics/’anti’-Kyoto camp, partly due to a reaction against such criticism and fear that greenhouse policy responses will hurt them financially.
Landowners have potential to be part of the solution and benefit through actions such as:
- building stored carbon in soil and biomass;
- managing livestock and feed rations to reduce enteric methane emissions;
- managing land to reduce nitrous oxide emissions;
- reducing use of greenhouse intensive fertilisers; and
- providing land for wind, solar and biomass energy production.
More than almost any other sector, farmers have opportunity to become greenhouse neutral by both reducing fossil fuel use and building stocks of stored carbon. If they do this, the rest of the community can have low emissions /greenhouse neutral food.
Many mainstream farmers are doing great work to improve the sustainable management of their land, but the stereotype of the environmental vandal persists. Most farmers understand more about the environment than many environmentalists understand about farming. This division and lack of understanding between farmers and environmentalist reduces the chance of working together to develop opportunities for greenhouse neutral farming and renewable energy production in the region.
There is need /opportunity to:
- educate environmentalists, farmers and the wider community about opportunities for low/no emissions farming;
- work with farmers to develop local opportunities and systems for low/no greenhouse agriculture.
What we will do:
- Promote messages that farmers are not ‘the enemy’
- Promote a positive vision of farming for the future – find good case studies
- Get unbiased/independent data about best practice farming to reduce greenhouse intensity.
- Educate the community about their own role in emissions from farming, and how their purchasing decisions can promote sustainable practices.
- Promote to farmers that they have opportunity to practice and profit from low emissions farming.
- Promote existing good examples of low emissions and sustainable farming
- Work with farmers to find resources to develop systems for regional agriculture.
- Look at simple carbon accounting systems for farmers in the region. Find out what CSIRO and others are doing in this area.
- Involve supermarket chains in stocking and promoting low emissions food (look at labelling/marketing products as low emissions)
- Look at existing systems for farmers to get environmental management system accreditation, and see if these can be adapted to ‘low emissions’ accreditation.
- Lobby DPI for more focus and information on this issue (find out what they are doing already)
- Develop sustainable farming events – soils, carbon farming, biomass, compost, biofuels, etc,
- Ask NFF/VFF re: opposition to CPRS etc and climate policy. See if focus can be put on common win-win opportunities. Find out what ACF and NFF are doing on sustainable farming and payments to farmers for ‘environmental services’. See if farmer representatives from the summit can meet Simon Ramsey and/or other leading figures in VFF
- Look at what it takes for farmers to list carbon on the Chicago Carbon Exchange or into other trading systems
- Do research and develop ideas and opportunities – develop information sheets for us and others about opportunities.
- Look at funding opportunities for local projects.
Who will we bring in:
- DPI
- VFF/NAFF
- CHAF - Central Highlands Agricultural Forum
- Carbon Coalition /Amazing Carbon (Dr Christine Jones and others)
When will we meet again?
Via Online chat forum to further develop ideas