Programs - Many programs currently run by council will already form part of your climate emergency response. However many of these programs will require re-framing within a climate emergency plan, and almost all programs will require a massive expansion of ambition and scope in order to be a true climate emergency response.
Building the community mandate - Building a mandate in the community for action on the climate emergency will be vital if we are to motivate federal and state governments to act. The mandate can be built through council leadership, community education and the success of supporting programs including:
- using existing council communications, such as their website and electronic or posted newsletters
- seeking exposure in the local media for the issue and for council's programs
- stating council's commitment to action on the climate emergency by putting a climate emergency message on council stationary and in email signature blocks
- hanging banners on key council buildings
- running community education events
- supporting local groups to promote the climate emergency to their particular cultural, religious, interest or language groups.
Filling in key gaps in the Climate Emergency response - Philip Sutton from RSTI has identified a number of key gaps in the supporting material for the climate emergency campaign. For example scientific report after scientific report concludes that, unless extreme measures are put in place, many of our key ecosystems and ecosystem functions will be destroyed, yet no one has collated these reports and drawn conclusions around what it would mean for global warming targets if we wanted to prevent this destruction.
These projects include:
- bringing together the science on current and future impacts
- planning how we go about scaling up the climate emergency campaign
- developing plans for carbon drawdown and global cooling
- planning how to push the climate emergency campaign internationally
Councils could either take these projects on by themselves, or work jointly with a number of other councils who have declared a climate emergency and other relevant institutions such as universities and think tanks. Once state and federal governments declare a climate emergency they could take over these projects if needed.
Ideas for policies and programs for inclusion in the Climate Emergency plan are here.