Community Power

Community Power: Taking action!

Access the links below to find out how YOU can take action.

• Letterbox your community with the correct information: Download this brochure, prepared by ParraCAN, add your group's logo and get the right information about climate change out to the people in your community.
• Letters to Editor: Tips and Contacts
• How to lobby effectively
• Debunking lobbying myths
• Friends of the Earth have designed a Climate Justice Kit to provide some resources for people to think through some of these issues in more detail. It’s also got some ideas for actions that groups can work on together. They state 'we’re not claiming to have all the answers – but we do think these issues are absolutely crucial to the work that the climate movement does and will continue to do for many years to come.
• Grassroots toolkit:The 'Climate of Change' toolkit has just been released. It was developed by BREAZE, a climate group in Ballarat, and contains a range of resources under headings such as advocacy and campaigning, community bulk buy, fundraising, governance, media, networking, running events, starting a group, strategies and plans, working with volunteers and more. There are a number of resources relating to group strategy and planning (see under advocacy and campaigning and strategies and plans) which are probably particularly useful at this time of year when groups are doing their planning for 2010.
• If you are a CANA member, you may also find the movement resources useful here (password required).
• The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) has launched its Climate Justice Campaign Site. It has pages/factsheets on what is climate change?, Climate change politics , Take action at work , Take action at home , People on low incomes , Sceptics and deniers , At the coal face , and Clean renewable energy.
• If you are interested in the power of community-based climate action groups, visit: Climatemovement.org.au and Community Climate Network.

Community climate news

 100% Renewable Energy campaign soon to launch (8/4/10): Following from the preparations at the CANA 2010 Conference to support a push for Australia to urgently move to 100% Renewable Energy, many community-based climate groups have been devising a sharp campaign to achieve this goal. The 100% RE campaign, which supports groups to work at the local level on a campaign with national level significance, will be launched on Sunday 2nd of May by local groups around the country. All interested individuals and groups are invited to join the campaign and to organise a launch event on Sunday 2nd of May (a picnic, talk, film etc), and to take a photo next to a sign showing their town or suburb name, to demonstrate just how many communities are calling for a clean energy future for Australia. More details are available on the enw website at 100percent.org.auand from Lindsay from Climate Action Newtown (a CANA member) at lindsay.soutar@gmail.com. For international inspiration, a new study was released this week, demonstrating how the opportunity exists to power Europe and North Africa exclusively by renewable electricity by 2050, if this is supported by a single European power market united with a similar market in North Africa. You can download the study at www.supersmartgrid.net.

Climate Summit outcomes (Mar 13-15 2010, Canberra): The second National Climate Summit was held for community-based climate action groups and other supporters. CANA and many member groups were present for three very full days of policy, campaign and network planning. In total, three hundred climate advocates from across Australia met in Canberra. While the details of the decisions, outcomes and next steps are still being finalised for web publication, they included a strategy for the Federal election (including a focus on key marginal seats, particularly Green - Labor swing seats, and extensive door knocking and voter engagement), reaffirmation of opposition to the proposed CPRS (matched with policy asks on clean renewable energy, green > jobs and the need for an immediate carbon levy), and a focus on 'no new coal' (as well the replacement of Hazelwood power station- responsible for 3% if Australia's total emissions). Additionally, the national Community Climate Network was formalised to implement the summit's strategy and coordinate the climate groups across Australia. All details are available from www.climatesummit.org.au. Associated with the Summit is a collection of provocative ideas, reflections and science, assembled by the Victorian Climate Action Centre and available at: http://www.climateactioncentre.org/sites/default/files/talk-climate-lowres.pdf

 Superannuation and climate change (19/3/10): The Climate Institute, a CANA member, has release a report presenting the results for their survey of Australian superfunds, assessing their management of climate change risks and opportunities. They found that the superfund industry remain ill-equipped to measure or manage climate change risks, despite being aware of the potential impacts on their investment portfolios. It also found that there has been a communication failure between superfunds and their advisors, asset consultants, with respect to responsibility for managing climate change-related issues; that despite the global financial crisis, short termism still dominates the superfund industry; and that superfunds trustees are still uncertain as to the scope of fiduciary duty with respect to managing environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues such as climate change. The report is available at: http://www.climateinstitute.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=643:super-survey-march-2010&catid=83:r1&Itemid=26

Robin Hood Tax: The 'Financial Transactions Tax', also known as the 'Robin Hood Tax', is a global campaign (spearheaded in Australia by Jubilee Australia, a CANA member). It will be officially launched to the media in Australia Tuesday, March 30.  The Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) is a very small levy applied to various categories of financial transactions including: stocks, bonds and currency. The rationale of the tax is both to regulate the market/ reduce global financial instability and to raise revenues for domestic and international purposes. It is proposed that 25 per cent would go to help developing countries adapt to and mitigate against the impacts of climate change. As CAN-I has discussed, this could go some way to providing the $150bn/year required as international finance to cut emissions and address climate change-induced impacts. More details are available about the Australian campaign and the UK campaign. To date, the following CANA member groups have signed on: Jubilee Australia, World Vision Australia, Oxfam Australia, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, and UnitingJustice.