The conference was so compelling I thought I’d share a very brief summary with my central Victorian community.

Darebin now has a Climate Emergency Strategic Plan, which came about when the candidates for the 2016 council elections signed the Climate Emergency Declaration.

After they were elected to Darebin Council, the first motion passed by the new Council was to address the climate emergency.

The climate emergency strategy is the only effective means of creating a safe climate for future generations.

It acknowledges the existential risk posed by global warming – that billions of people will die across the planet. Effective immediate action is imperative.

An adaptation strategy changes nothing and will not arrest increasing temperatures.

The capacity to adapt will soon be outstripped by the destructive impacts of warming.

The mitigation strategy attempts to reduce the severity of climate change in incremental stages due to political expediency.

This ignores the precipice of positive feedback we’re at the very edge of, beyond which is zero chance of a safe climate on this planet.

Note that positive feedbacks have already started and we’re not yet at 1.5 degrees.

If we wish to provide a liveable environment for future generations, then the restoration strategy is the only option.

This requires desperately urgent action. We have an ever-narrowing window – less than 10 years – to take the necessary steps to restore the earth to a safe climate for all. 

This means:

• Stop ALL fossil fuel burning and extraction; 

• Stop destruction of forests;

• Simultaneously draw down CO2 from the atmosphere – the most effective and efficient method is to rehabilitate degraded forests, along with regenerative farming methods.

This is possible if an emergency mobilisation takes place, similar to that of World War II when communities worked together to face and defeat a common enemy. Individual behaviours will not deliver us from the crisis we are rushing towards. Indigenous communities are key to leading us to a safer future.

Details of the Darebin’s Climate Emergency Strategic Plan and the Climate Emergency Plan 2017-2022 can be found online.

Of course there was much more detail in a two-day conference – including the latest science, regenerative agriculture (with Charles Massy), security, psychology and communications. 

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