Councils have led the world in declaring that we face a climate emergency, and they can lead the world again by entering full emergency mode. 

The Shire of Yarra Ranges community has already got it’s council to declare a climate emergency, however this alone will not be enough to save us.

CACE (Council and community Action in the Climate Emergency) is now working with community groups to get the first councils in the world to enter full emergency mode.
 
By entering emergency mode the Shire can demonstrate to higher levels of government the type of response we need if we are to avoid a climate collapse.

On November 29th, 6- 8.30pm, CACE is co-hosting a Planning Meeting on how the Yarra Ranges community can work towards getting the Shire to enter a full emergency mobilisation to restore a safe climate.

This Meeting is on the Friday as the first event the Red and Blue weekend at ECOSS and is open to all members of the community want action to reverse global warming.

The meeting will be held in The Coop at Yarra Valley ECOSS.
Meeting Agenda

• update on the global climate emergency declaration campaign (5 minutes) and an explanation of what an emergency mode actually entails (10 minutes) from CACEs Adrian Whitehead
• 2-3 minutes reports on existiwww.facebook.com/events/1152388041632683/ng local campaigns and initiatives (20-30 minutes)
• Dividing in to focus groups including (reminding time
• Report back (10 minutes)

See the facebook event for more details.

Help get your council into full emergency mode by checking out the following links.... 

• start your emergency mobilisation campaign- head to the CACE website to find out how. www.caceonline.org/build-a-campaign.html
• what emergency mobilisation looks like for a council - 
• a detailed look at why we need this campaign                      www.caceonline.org/blog/november-07th-2019 

​Find out more about ECOSS here: http://www.ecoss.org.au/

Find out about the Red and Blue event here:
https://www.redandbluegatherings.net/victoria-2019.html

Adrian Whitehead from CACE this week met with several NSW councillors and community groups regarding full-scale climate emergency response by the relevant councils. The discussion in one council area was particularly promising, with both community, councillors and staff expressing expressing commitment to the necessary full-scale climate emergency mobilisation. 

Adrian also received a guided tour by David Maher of a 20 ha Central Coast property, Yula Punal Aboriginal Women’s Healing and Education Centre, situated at the base of Watagan State Forest, that David (Watershed Systems for Recovery of Climate) has been rehabilitating by restoring appropriate watershed infrastructure and appropriate vegetation. The effects to date, even amongst the surrounding dry, are impressive. 

Councillors opposed to recognising the climate emergency had a significant victory at Knox Council on Monday night (28th October 2019), when they succeeded in stopping Knox Council acknowledging a climate emergency.

The vote followed a very impressive campaign undertaken by the local community, which included the collection of 1000s of signatures supporting the acknowledgement. Around one hundred from the campaign attended the council meeting.

The original motion proposed by Cr John Mortimore in response to pressure from local climate emergency activists included the statement “we are in a state of climate and environmental emergency” but this was removed.

Instead a highly amended proposal was presented on the night. One Councillor, Cr Adam Gill, questioned the legitimacy of the change given the lateness. The Mayor claimed this had been done to ensure a unanimous vote.

​The short term victory of those councillors opposing emergency action was complete with no single councillor voting against the removal of the recognition of the climate emergency. However, campaign has positioned the climate emergency as a central topic for the council elections in 2020 and those opposing councillors won the battle but may yet 'lose the war'.