Do you live in an urban area of Victoria? Love Victoria’s wild places, and want to help protect them from worsening bushfires? This one’s for you. 

Climate change is supercharging our bushfire seasons. Victoria’s latest Climate Science Report predicts that the annual number of high fire danger days in Victoria will increase by over 60% by the 2050s. These climate-fueled bushfires threaten Victorian lives, health, industry, First Nations cultural heritage and biodiversity on an unprecedented scale.

Longer, more intense bushfire seasons are placing huge burdens on Victoria’s firefighters. The Country Fire Authority (CFA) has lost nearly 2,000 volunteers since the Black Summer bushfires, and many rural CFA brigades are ageing as young people move to urban areas for work and study. Additionally, as climate change causes bushfire seasons around the world to overlap, we will not be able to draw on external firefighting support as we have in the past for ‘surge capacity’ needed during large bushfires.

It is clear that to tackle the climate-fuelled bushfire seasons of the 21st century, Victoria needs to strengthen its firefighting capacity by unlocking new sources of volunteers within the state.

We call on the Victorian government to create a volunteer remote area firefighting team (RAFT) that Victorians living in urban areas, like you, could join. 

Allowing urban Victorians to be trained and deployed as firefighters at times of urgent need would be a smart response to the reality of longer, more intense bushfire seasons. It would:

• Be an innovative way of strengthening firefighting capacity that would bring a younger, greater diversity of people into the CFA.
• Allow urban-based people who love wild places to play a practical role in protecting them from bushfires.
• Increase firefighting capacity at a low cost to the state.
• Contain fires before they destroy huge areas of biodiversity-rich bush. In bad fire seasons we often have to prioritise firefighting efforts to protect private property before public land, and a team dedicated to remote areas would help ensure that the places we love can be protected.  
• Provide backup for Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMV) remote area teams (which should also continue to be expanded)
• Catch Victoria up with other states that have Remote Area Firefighting Teams (NSW, Tasmania, ACT and QLD).
• Lessen the burden on existing fire brigades over summer. All Victorians benefit from volunteer firefighting, but the burden is not shared between urban and regional people.

The Victorian government’s new ten-year Bushfire Management Strategy states that the goal of increasing firefighter capacity is fundamental and will be a key aspect of its approach. With the strategy in draft form, we have an opportunity to get this good idea on the table and make it a reality.

To make our case, we need to demonstrate that there are lots of urban-based people who would sign up to be part of a Victorian RAFT, if it existed.

Add Your Name: I’d sign up to join a remote area firefighting team for Victoria.

*Note: by adding your name, you are not committing yourself to anything mandatory in advance. This pledge is for us to demonstrate the level of interest in the idea and for you to receive campaign updates.

To prepare for locked-in climate impacts, we need ongoing funding for community-led adaptation work. 

Will you call on the Victorian government to support communities in building resilience to climate impacts?

When it comes to tackling the climate crisis, every inch of a degree of warming that we can prevent by rapidly reducing emissions still matters. But climate impacts like bushfires, floods, drought and extreme weather are already inflicting blows on communities around the country. We know we need to prepare for a certain amount of warming that is locked in.

The majority of funding to address climate impacts is currently put into disaster relief, but we can’t only be on a reactive footing to climate impacts. Communities want funding in advance of climate disasters to build resilience and lessen the damage of impacts when they hit.

We call on the Victorian government to establish a permanent Victorian Community Climate Adaptation Fund (VCCAF). The fund would distribute money annually to community groups that apply to undertake localised adaptation and resilience projects. This approach would help the government meet its obligations to the Victorian Climate Change Act (2017) and ensure Victorian communities can enhance their capacity to adapt to impacts.

When the Victorian government has provided one-off grant programs for communities to carry out adaptation work in the past, they have been dramatically oversubscribed. It is clear that there is strong demand for support of local solutions that empower communities.

The government can build on its previous successful grant scheme models by establishing a permanent VCCAF. The nature of the fund would take into account the highly localised nature of climate impacts, and accordingly take a bottom-up approach of dispersing money to local groups that know the unique needs of their communities well.

Add your name to show your support for a permanent Victorian Community Climate Adaptation Fund.

In late July, the Act on Climate collective hit the road down the southwest coast of Victoria to chat with communities about their concerns when it comes to climate change impacts, and their hopes and visions for the area. Here's a report back on how it went...

Act on Climate went on a West Coast Roadtrip from 17 July to 24 July, hosting events in towns along the coast, specifically Torquay, Apollo Bay, Warrnambool and Portland, to meet with local groups active in the area and interested community members from all walks of life. The aim was to explore the climate impacts these coastal towns are already experiencing and the solutions locals would like to see.

On July 18, we visited Apollo Bay for a Coastal Impacts Community Meetup. We gathered at Marrar Woorn Neighbourhood House in Apollo Bay to talk about local climate impact concerns over tea, crumble and cake. Read a summary of the late afternoon's get-together below...

Here is the Act on Climate crew's update on what we're up to, what's coming up, and ways you can get involved!

We're excited to announce that our collective is planning on visiting climate affected frontline communities with an Act on Climate roadtrip this July.

Climate impacts are already being experienced by communities across Victoria and we want to support people in their calls for solutions.

RSVP for an upcoming collective meeting or our Organising Training Series with Friends of the Earth's Sustainable Cities collective if you're keen to be a part of our new campaign or learn some organising skills - no experience required, just passion for climate justice.

Here is the Act on Climate crew's update on what we're up to, what's coming up, and ways you can get involved!

It's an exciting time in the collective right now as we enter a new period of organising. We're switching gears and returning to frontline climate impacts work with communities as well as making time for community care and collective capacity building.

RSVP for an upcoming collective meeting or our Organising Training Series with Friends of the Earth's Sustainable Cities collective if you're keen to be a part of our new campaign or learn some organising skills - no experience required, just passion for climate justice.

The Albanese government has announced that a final deal has been reached between Labor and the Greens on the Safeguard Mechanism. What was in the final deal?

Here is the Act on Climate crew's update on what we're up to, what's coming up, and ways you can get involved!

This past month, the community has been dialling up the heat on the Dirty Dozen Polluters, and putting the question to the Albanese government: will it Safeguard Our Climate or Protect Polluter Profits?

RSVP for an upcoming collective meeting if you're keen to get in on the action - no experience required, just passion for climate justice.

Here is the Act on Climate crew's update on what we're up to, what's coming up, and ways you can get involved!

In this first month of the year, we've hit the ground running alongside climate groups across the country to make the case for the Albanese government to Safeguard Our Climate, Not Polluter Profits.

RSVP for an upcoming collective meeting if you're keen to get in on the action - no experience required, just passion for climate justice.

The Narracan supplementary-election is fast approaching, with voting to conclcuding on Saturday 28th January, 2023. It's an important opportunity for the Narracan electorate in Gippsland to get to know and understand where each candidate stands on climate change, energy and health.