Just weeks after Friends of the Earth launched the People's Climate Strategy for Victoria, a project with over a thousand contributors, the Andrews government is calling for community input on the state's first Adaptation Action Plans.
When it comes to tackling the climate crisis, it's obvious that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
The bulk of Friends of the Earth's climate justice campaigning has been, and remains, on securing policies that deliver deep emissions reductions. We're campaigning for offshore wind, improved public transport, and greater protection of native forests.
Unfortunately, due to the slow pace of action from governments, we must now prepare for climate impacts that are now locked in.
That means we must now have an eye on climate adaptation policies to ensure they help communities and ecosystems cope with intensifying heatwaves, bushfires, extreme weather, and rising sea levels.
The Victorian government is now preparing the state's first Adaptation Action Plans... Will you make a submission?
With the process not being highly-publicised, it's crucial for you as community members who contributed to the People's Climate Strategy to add your voices.
HOW TO MAKE A SUBMISSION:
The state government is running a general survey to gather the community's thoughts and ideas, and additional surveys specifically for seven support 'systems' that underpin our society.
What we think is important:
- Completing the general survey. This is the quickest and easiest way to tell the Victorian government about the climate impacts you are already observing and are worried about, and the ideas you have for enhancing resilience to impacts.
Step 1:
- Reacquaint yourself with our People’s Climate Strategy for Victoria for ideas and key points to make. The Climate Change Solutions: Adaptation to Impacts section, starting from page 42, contains a list of the top ideas for climate change adaptation contributed by community members. You might like to reference any of these points that stand out for you.
- Click here to head to the website home page 'Building a climate-resilient Victoria.' Scroll down the page to complete the Adaptation Action Plan general survey.
Key points you can make when completing the survey:
- Call for clear timelines on adaptation and resiliency projects: we need the government to commit to specific projects, with deadlines. This adaptation plan to guide state efforts out to 2025.
- Call for public education campaigns to accompany adaptation projects that clearly explain the links between the impacts we are seeing unfold (such as coastal erosion) and climate change.
- You could reference the remarkably successful communication with the community since the beginning of the COVID pandemic by the Victorian government through its chief medical science authorities. Victoria has a Chief Health Officer who can communicate information in a way that is above party politics, could we also have a Chief Climate Officer?
- And finally, call for greater community consultation for the stages of the government's Climate Strategy still to come.
- We understand that the rapidly changing pandemic situation last year was a barrier to the government carrying out best-practice community consultation on the drafting of its Climate Strategy.
- It's important that the government now compensates for this gap by conducting meaningful engagement with a diversity of communities on its climate adaptation and mitigation policies. How would you like to see the government consult with your community?
Friends of the Earth will make a submission to build on the momentum of the People’s Climate Strategy for Victoria, which had a strong focus on adaptation and community resiliency. We will publish our submission in the coming month for everyone to read.
A few hundred of us taking the survey on top of this will have a lot of impact.
If you have any questions, bright ideas, or fancy a yarn, please get in touch:
Anna Langford
Act on Climate coordinator
[email protected]
0478 031 771
Leigh Ewbank
Friends of the Earth campaigns coordinator
[email protected]
0406 316 176