Climate Action Merribek: people in Brunswick, Coburg, Fawkner and Glenroy wanting action on climate change

Make 2015 the year the world finally gets serious about Climate Action

February 13, 2015 at 11:34 pm morelandclimategroup Leave a comment

Welcome to the February 2015 edition of the Climate Action Moreland Newsletter.

Let’s help make 2015 the year that the world finally gets serious about Climate Action

This is an important year. The UN Climate Change Conference in Paris hopes to finally achieve a legally binding universal agreement on climate change. We can all do our bit to ensure that Australia takes up the challenge!

There are lots of activities happening over the next month. (See our calendar.) This is a great time to get involved, get active and get your friends motivated too!

2014 recap

The year 2014 was globally the hottest year on record. (And despite the apparently cooler start to 2015, minimum temperatures in Melbourne are well above average.)
CAM held a great candidates’ forum in November.
Victoria has a new government, and we hope this will bring much stronger action on climate change for Victoria. We are pleased to see that the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target will be kept.
The East-West Link has been defeated. Thanks to the various anti-Tunnel groups, including MCAT (Moreland Community against the East-West Tunnel) for their great work. MCAT will now be focusing on Action on Transport! We now look forward to much more public transport, bicycle paths and pedestrian friendly areas!

Will the federal govt act on climate change?

The latest news is that the federal government may be shifting ground on climate policy, particularly in terms of not scaling back the Renewable Energy Target as much as earlier intended. See also here. We need to keep the pressure on them!

Unfortunately the federal government doesn’t seem to grappling with the huge risks that Australia faces from climate change. Recently Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop attended Washington for a series of meetings on security and terrorism. But recognising climate change as a security threat was just too much for Julie Bishop, evading a journalist’s probing question and replying with some untruthful spin on the Government’s climate change ‘good story’. Read more from John Englart (CAM member) at Nofibs.

Fossil Fuel Divestment

Last year we reported that CAM and 350.org had successfully lobbied Moreland Council to start developing a strategy to divest from fossil fuels. The Council’s Strategy is due to be finalised in June 2015. CAM and 350.org have now released a discussion paper. See report here, and discussion paper PDF here.

Meanwhile, other Councils are taking up this idea too. See this article on the Marrickville Council in inner Sydney.

CAM is now developing a Moreland Community Divestment Charter. It will be for organisations to sign as a pledge not to invest their money in fossil fuels. We are looking at all sorts of organisations – from businesses, community groups, body corporates, school councils and/or any other group of Morelanders that get together.

Do you know an organisation that may be interested? Contact Michael Stanley at michaelfstanley@gmail.com or on 0400 054 134 if you’d like to get involved.

Global Divestment Day is also coming up on Feb 13 and 14.

Sustainable Living Festival and Transitional Film Festival

The Sustainable Living Festival will be running until March 1. There are lots of activities that are relevant to climate action. In particular, George Marshall is visiting Australia to talk about climate change communication. See here and here for more details.

The Transition Film Festival is on until March 6. This is “is a visionary festival dedicated to showcasing inspirational documentaries about the social and technological innovations, revolutionary ideas and trail-blazing changemakers that are leading the way to a better world”.

On the Road to Climate Justice and a Paris Climate Agreement

Climate Action Moreland member John Englart, with his teenage daughter, will be travelling to and attending the UNFCCC climate negotiations in Paris from November 30 to December 11 to report directly on the negotiations and keep a specific eye on the negotiating positions and spin from the Australian Government. Watch out for ongoing reports on the process for negotiating a global agreement on climate change throughout this year from John on our website. We need both local and global action if we are to prevent catastrophic climate impacts.

John is a citizen journalist presently writing for Margot Kingston’s nofibs.com.au website who has been blogging on climate issues for over 10 years (takvera.blogspot.com ). John has just published his literature review on Climate Change heatwaves and Melbourne and the associated annotated bibliography.

Food and Climate Change

When we think of reducing our carbon emissions, we usually think about energy production and consumption. But food is also important.

Animal Liberation Victoria is hosting the film Cowspiracy, which tackles the silence around the huge environmental impacts of animal agriculture. This will be held on Tuesday Feb 17 at the Astor. See here and tickets here.

A recent academic paper examined the energy density and nutrition of food in relation to their carbon footprint. The researchers identified that grains and seeds had the lowest greenhouse gas emissions, were energy dense but with a relatively low nutrient content. Animal products such as meat and dairy were more nutrient dense but had a higher greenhouse gas emission rate. See also this paper on Ruminants, climate change and climate policy (PDF), or this open access paper on The importance of reduced meat and dairy consumption for meeting stringent climate change targets.

Many people have become vegetarian or vegan as a way of reducing their personal carbon emissions. How society as a whole is to reduce its carbon emissions from food as well as ensuring good nutrition for all is something that will require much research, debate and education. For an interesting discussion, see here.

Within Moreland, Open Table runs free community lunches and dinners aimed at reducing food waste. Food insecurity is also a concern for some Moreland residents. Organisations such as Fawkner Community House are trying to address this. Growing food locally will also become increasingly important in a warming world. We are pleased to see that the Council in neighbouring Darebin has developed an Urban Food Production Strategy (PDF).

Anstey Village
Do you live near Anstey Station? Local residents are forming a group to tackle local issues including sustainability. For more info see their facebook page.

Climate Action Moreland meeting: Monday February 23, 2015 from 6.30pm.

Venue: The Dining Room, Edinburgh Castle Hotel, 681 Sydney Rd (cnr Albion), Brunswick. More information: Andrea 0424 508 535

Keep in touch with CAM

Keep in touch here at our website or climateactionmoreland@gmail.com
Find us on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/groups/climateactionmoreland/
Follow us on Twitter at @camoreland.
Or call Andrea at 0424 508 535

Entry filed under: campaigns, divestment, food security, newsletter.