| 8.00am |
Registration |
| 8.50am |
Welcome to Country
- Uncle Greg Sims, introduced by Phil Bradley, ParraCAN
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| 9.00am |
Welcome to the school and community
- Judy Kelly, Principal and student, Alan Huyn Sydney Secondary College
- Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney
- Jamie Parker, State MP for Balmain
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| 9.15am |
The Community Climate Network, Summit objectives and Summit organisation
- Annie Nielsen and Howard Nielsen Community Climate Network
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| 9.40am |
Thanks to sponsors – Pacific Hydro, Oxfam, Greenpeace and Climate Friendly |
| 9.45am |
Latest Climate Science – Extreme Weather and the Social Consequences of Climate Change
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| 10.55am |
Ice Breaker/Morning Tea |
| 11.25am |
Campaign Workshops
- Renewable Energy (Report)
- Lindsay Soutar, 100 Percent Renewable (Slides)
- John Kaye, NSW Greens MLC (Slides)
- Nigel Hancock, Beyond Zero Emissions
- Political Campaigning (Report)
- Lee Rhiannon, NSW Greens Senator
- Carolyn Ingvarson, Lighter Footprints
- Kate Smolski, Nature Conservation Council NSW (Slides)
- Reece Proudfoot, World Wildlife Fund (Slides)
- Carbon and soils – Restoring our earth from climate damage, Part 1 (Report)
- Walter Jehne and colleagues, Healthy Soils Australia
- Climate science communication and rebutting skeptics (Report)
- John Cook, University of Queensland (Slides)
- Prof Lesley Hughes, Climate Commissioner, Macquarie University
- Amanda McKenzie, Climate Commission
- Health Effects of Climate Change and Fossil Fuels (Report)
- Assoc. Prof Erica Bell, Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA), University of Tasmania
- Dr Liz Hanna, President CAHA, Australian National University
- Dr Elizabeth Haworth, Epidermiologist, University of Oxford
- Strengthening groups – Motivating people to take action
- Jess Moore, Stop CSG Illawarra (Slides)
- Andrea Bunting, Psychology for a Safe Climate
- Tom Halbert, ParraCAN
- Whole system change – innovative thinking to solve global warming (Report)
- Andrew Gaines, Transition Leader Network
- Three Open Space workshops – Discussion topics by nomination and choice, introduced by Howard Nielsen. Possible topics include: Media and Communication; Sydney Climate and Environment Network by Anne O’Brien, Antony Lewis and others,ParraCAN; Non Violent Direct Action by Adam Guise, CSG Activist; Table Talk Psychology by Carol Ride & Mary Stringer, Grandstand for the Environment; and impromptu topics.
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| 12.55pm |
Lunch |
| 1.45pm |
Successful Campaigning
- Drew Hutton, Lock the Gate
- Lindsay Soutar, 100% Renewables (Slides)
- Kirsty Albion, Australian Youth Climate Coalition (Slides)
- Dr Merryn Redenbach, Quit Coal (Slides)
- Fiona Armstrong, Climate and Health Alliance (Slides)
- Kate Smolski, Nature Conservation Council NSW (Slides)
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| 2.55pm |
Afternoon tea |
| 3.20pm |
Campaigns Workshops
- Coal seam gas
- Drew Hutton, Lock the Gate
- Jess Moore, Stop CSG Illawarra (Slides)
- Adam Guise, Adviser to NSW Greens MLC, Jeremy Buckingham (Slides)
- Forests and Climate (Report)
- Lorraine Bower and Mike Thompson, Climate and Forest Alliance
- How to Get Your Community to Take Action – Samford Case Study
- Howard Nielsen, NACC Sustainability
- Carbon and soils – Restoring our earth from climate damage, Part 2 (Report)
- Walter Jehne and colleagues, Healthy Soils Australia
- Communicating about climate change using a health framework
- Fiona Armstrong, Climate and Health Alliance (Slides)
- Dr Helen Redmond, Doctors for the Environment (Slides)
- Dr Charles Le Feuvre, Psychology for a Safe Climate
- Non Violent Resistance to Coal and other Fossil Fuels (Report)
- Professor Colin Butler, Canberra University
- Whole system change – Steady state economy (Report)
- Anna Schlunke, Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy
- Minding the Earth, Mending the world
- Introduction by Libby Skeels, Psychology for a Safe Climate
- Susan Murphy, Author
- Three Open Space workshops – Discussion topics by nomination and choice. Possible topics include: Federal Election Campaign Plans – Sharing & Feedback on Resouces & Strategies (bring them with you) by Dr Merryn Redenbach; Media; Climate Art by Josh Wodak, Climarte; Free to live: Liberating Yourself and Others from the Money/Consumption Trap by Richard and Maria Maguire, and impromptu topics.
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| 4.50pm |
International Developments I, George Monbiot (by Skype), Zoologist, Activist and Author |
| 5.20pm |
Campaign meetings: Opportunity for people who want to work on a particular campaign to meet and exchange ideas and contact details.Social gathering in cafeteria with appetisers as part of the 100% Renewable NSW launch. |
| 6.00pm |
Launch of the 100% Renewable NSW campaign by John Kaye MLC and pre-dinner drinks (Slides)
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| 7.00pm |
Conference Dinner and Entertainment – a vegetarian Indian meal to be held at the school with Ecopella entertaining us |
Australia's Climate Action Summit 
This looks like a fabulous line up of people all wanting to make the country and the world a better place to live…I look forward to it.
I welcome the introduction of the topic concernign population and its link with consumption and other environmental issues. Science, demographics, economicsand environemental consciuousness are inserted into the program. Population is an issue and a major one even if it is hard to define as a problem. It cannot be ignored or explained away as many participants who attend these fora tend to do. Dr Michael michaux, a mining enginerr, claims that since 1850 population has grown 5.3 times and consumption has risen by 8.6 times. It took hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution and settlement to get to 1 bilion people in the early 1800s, another 100 years to get to 2 billion, around 6o years to get to 3 billion and, since the early 1960s the world’s population has increased by 1 bilion people every 12 years on average. I don;t think how this cannot be a problem given we are on a finite world. It is a complex issue but to say that we don;t have a population problem is burying one’s head in the sand. It is not known precisely when the world’s population will stabilise. There are only tentative signs of it slowing down. Social justice issues arise however you divvy up the pie. It can become a mess. The issue is complex for sure however your political persuasions. At last some debate and it should not be shut down. Doing so degrades reason and scientific credibility.
I agree with you population is a major problem. (1 billion people today are undernourished and do not have enough water to drink)
In 1996 Senator Harradine(from Tasmania) did a deal with the Howard government .Harradine would support Bills like the sale of Telstra and the government would stop providing foreign aid in the form of family planning , contraception pills and abortions. Tens of thousands of women die each year from unsafe abortions. All Western governments should be funding family planning in all countries.Most Western countries have less than 2.1 children.
In Australia the number of children per woman in 2000 was about 1.73 in 2010 1.89, so it is going up. One child born in Australia consumes much more than one child born in an under developed country. We don’t have a large population but we also don’t have a country criss-crossed with rivers.
Australia is a large land mass but the soil is old and in many areas not fertile. A large proportion is desert. Salinity is a big problem and it is getting worse, due to growing crops like rice in unsuitable areas , irrigation, and denuding the land of native vegetation. Mining also disturbs the groundwater level and toxicity. Mining occupies 0.25% of the land and is responsible for nearly 40% of waste, agriculture the other 40% altohugh it covers roughly 65% of the land.(I acquired these statistics this year during my first year at uni).
This is the URL of the actual downloadable movie “Do the Math”, not just the trailer.
I have just watched on you tube, the “Do the Math” from 350.org.
Would be nice to have an official part of the program mention this, as links for people who might not be able to make the summit. I’m sure its very simple and deadly points, will get highlighted within program items.
URL is
Actions of interest : Fossil Fuel Divestment campaign.
Shame their is no mention of our win against Woodside in the Kimberley and the hugely successful Broome Community No Gas Campaign. There are Sydney-based activists who participated in that campaign who could make valuable contributions.
Hey there Wyewurk,
Do you know if they will be attending the conference? If they’ve registered then we can certainly find a way to have their input! It might have just been a case of not knowing the amazing work these people have done, rather than something intentional.
Happy to work with you!
Hi Neha, I am one but I only played a very small part (blockading in 2011, online campaigning). I just got back from Broome, where we won on 12 April. Not sure if any other Sydney people have registered. TWS NSW were involved in the campaign.
Firstly, Australia doesn’t have a population problem, it has a resource problem…
Second, will there be many skills based workshops? eg direct action, strategies for campaigning, fundraising and events, building and maintaining collectives. I feel we have got to the point where the majority of individuals who attend these conferences already know and understand the issues, and we should be focusing on how we can skill people up to do something about it. I would like to see whole climate summits dedicated to pro-active workshops.
Cheers.
Spot on, Jimmy!
I don’t see any mention of the common element that depletes every environmental source and overloads every environmental sink; namely population growth. Shouldn’t be surprised, Climate Action is just a euphemism for social justice….a handy leg-up for left wing politics.
The environment doesn’t care about who gets what. It doesn’t care about average consumption. It cares about the the aggregate levels of stress that we place on the planet. Denying the role of population growth is just another form of eco-fraud.
We have included a workshop on Population and Consumption.
Annie Nielsen
Population is less significant than Patterns of Consumption. Demographic Transition to population stabilization is well under way in even the most undeveloped countries. Much is known about reducing population- educate and empower women, and “social justice” people are driving that so these objectives are complimentary not exclusive. But global imbalances in Patterns of Consumption mean that of Greenhouse gases an average Australian contributes about forty times that of a Subsaharan African. So in comparative terms our population is 800 million. And patterns of consumption are already changing. It’s another natural phenomenon of progress. We just need to speed up the process quickly that’s all. That’s what this conference seems to be about and it’s why Ill be supporting it. I think you’ll find these participants share more in common with you than you might think.
I think population growth in rich and poor countries, including Australia, is very important for the environment. It’s also very complicated and difficult. In low-income countries, and India is a very good example, population growth rates of the poor remain very high, substantially because of their lack of social justice (especially access to nutrition, education and health care). Australia’s miserly aid budget (which also has issues of quality not quantity) also illustrates our own lack of contribution to global social justice. Justice is about fairness, especially of opportunity, rather than “entitlement”. High population growth in Australia mainly reflects the influence of developers, our adherence to conventional economic theories, and ultimately our own fear of being dispossessed, just as we dispossessed another people.
Hi Gus, I agree with most of what you say. Are you going to come to the Summit and contribute your ideas to the workshop on Population and consumption? I hope to see you there.
Annie Nielsen
Hi Gus & others – as the NSW Nature Conservation Council notes: “we cannot roll back denial of climate change unless we roll back our consumer worldview, as the 2010 State of the World Report explains in detail (Starke and Mastny, 2010). Preventing the collapse of human civilisation requires nothing less than a wholesale transformation of dominant consumer culture (Flavin, 2010). Consumption has gone up sixfold since 1960, but while population numbers have grown by a factor of 2.2, consumption expenditure per person has almost tripled (Assadourian, 2010).”
Hey there,
If you’d like to see workshops that don’t focus on social justice and the intersections between the environment and the people who live on it, you’re more than welcome to come along and chat to attendees and participate in workshops. You’re also welcome to run a stall at the Summit.
Unfortunately there isn’t room left in the program for more workshops and other sessions at the moment (and I only saw your post now) but if you’re interested in the direction of the Summit, definitely apply to run a workshop next year, I’m sure people would love to hear your perspective.
Hope to see you at the conference!
HI Neha
Love to meet you in the Summit. I live in Canberra and will be attending summit with friends from Climate Action Canberra. I am also Coordinator of Bangladesh Environment Net Work BEN
0452441952
Thank you for this very promising line up.
There is a lot about communication but apart from Simon Butler, who is an excellent journalist on developments around Climate , I notice no actual session on the media. Maybe the opening forum will focus on this, but I think it would be good to set up a panel with Simon, Giles Parkinson from REnewEconomy and someone from the mainstream papers to talk about how they frame the information we all absorb.
On the community radio programme I produce I often go to the people the media has given seconds to and interview them at length. I would like to know why the media tells the climate story in such a piecemeal and dispassionate way and what we can do about it. The absence of a session on the media suggests that the climate movement is so disenchanted with the media that we don’t think it’s worth while interracting with them.
Hi Vivien,
You raise some fantastic points. Have you seen our most recent line-up? What are your thoughts? I recognise that they aren’t entirely along the lines of what you mentioned, but it might be a little more along the lines of what you’re saying.
There is space for an open session on media and it would be great if maybe you and those interested in facilitating that, get together and plan something out, I know there will be a few people there who have a media focus and might be able to offer something in that session.
It is a great idea you’ve proposed though, it might be worth proposing it for the 2014 Summit, depending on where it is there could be scope for an in-depth discussion.
Feel free to contact us if you have any further thoughts or ideas on the issue.
Thanks for your feedback!
i want to participate in climate change summit of june 2013 in sidney to share of collegues how africa is late about this topicor subject.