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 As featured in the Colac Heard 7 Oct 19.... "YOUNG LEADERS: Colac Otway Shire schoolchildren joined residents calling for action at a climate and biodiversity emergency meeting in Colac yesterday. Rhani Adams, Piyali Beale, Teararatai Horo and Rose Gitting stood up at the meeting and urged community leaders to acknowledge a state of climate emergency. Read more about the meeting and a petition to Colac Otway Shire Council in Wednesday's Colac Herald. " Click for more....  Adrian Whitehead from CACE was a key speaker at a community event held in Colac on Sunday the 6th of October. The events was organised by local community members and was attended by more than 50 residents.
The event featured two great speeches from local school children Rhani Adams and Rose Gitting how expressed their concern for their futures and the lack of effort by adults to save them. Cr Steven Hart spoke about what Colac Otway Shire had done and was not doing in this space and the meeting was attended by Cr Brain Crook. The event launched local petition for Colac Otway Shire to acknowledge that we are in a climate emergency and commit to stronger action. The petition is available in hard cop locally and closes on January the 28th. People wishing to get involved in this campaign can contact Marina via her email at lewisandlongmore@netspace.net.au Many councils that declare a climate emergency want a detailed guide to how to proceed post declaration. The CACE website has been breaking down in more detail some of the areas that councils want spelled out in more detail with pages, under 'A Guide for Councils' now including:
-Motions to declare a climate emergency -Your climate emergency plan -Entering emergency mode -Post declaration More detail will be added to these pages over time but the fundamental framework is there for councils to mobilise, which was the original intent of the climate emergency declarations. Nicole and Harry, both studying for a Bachelor of Environment and Society at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, are undertaking internships at CACE toward their qualification. Their work with be added to the 'Post-declaration nuts and bolts clearinghouse'. Nicole will focus on gathering examples of low-cost programs and polices the council can adopt toward its climate emergency response and Harry will focus on council for models for facilitating energy efficient building retrofits.
As of 1 July 2019, 719 councils across 16 countries have declared a climate emergency. With the first to declare in December 2016, the number of councils that has declared has doubled in the past four months, as made available in the global list managed by CEDAMIA.
Moreover the New York City has declared and a number of nations have joined including Canada. This upward momentum to central governments was a goal when the council climate emergency campaign was first developed. CACE is seeking partners international to lead CACE campaigns in their own countries. Activities would include but not be limited to:
Saturday February 23 turned out to be possibly the most important day in Knox's Environmental History! At the Knox Environmental Volunteers Workshop there was overwhelming support for the formation of an alliance of groups to tackle environment and climate action issues locally, with incredible passion shown by participants to act quickly and powerfully! They are calling on Knox City Council to declare a climate emergency as other global Councils and organisations have already. https://www.facebook.com/Greening-Knox-284452315074210/  Since mid-January 2019, Adrian and Bryony from CACE have been campaigning (and touring) in Europe. Adrian will be in EU until on 12 March and is currently firming up his schedule, with meetings so far in Zurich, Helsinki, Sweden, Bonn, Brussels and Copenhagen. Meetings and presentations to date have focused on the UK but also include continental meetings, as in the list below. Most engagements have been very fruitful. CACE's goals have included not only spreading the campaign but also getting a proper climate emergency response from councils that have declared.
 Over 350 councils across four countries have now declared a climate emergency with the vast majority declaring since November 2018. The momentum is staggering. CEDAMIA has been tracking and mapping the progress. Maribyrnong in Victoria, Australia, declared this week following a targeted community campaign. Sarah Rickard, who led the campaign, has kindly provided a summary document of what the campaign group undertook to get all councillors on board. Follow this link. The photo below shows Sarah and other campaigners with the Maribyrnong councillors, holding their statements of support for the Climate Emergency Declaration.  It seems that every week now, another council is passing motions to recognise the climate emergency. The long silence that followed Darebin's climate emergency motion in 2016 is now popping with declarations almost weekly, not just in Australia but around the world. Following Byron Shire's motion on 18 October we have seen similar motions by Ballarat (a second regional Australian Council), Bristol (the first UK Council) and Totnes (the second UK council). A distinction can be made between councils that plan to declare a climate emergency committing to mobilisation of resources and those just passing motions to recognise the emergency. The lists are as follows. Acknowledgement motions only are underlined. Which council will be next?
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