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 is projected to increase, in some areas, by over 60% by the 2050s. These climate-fuelled bushfires threaten lives, housing, health, industry, First Nations cultural heritage and biodiversity on an unprecedented scale.

Longer, more intense bushfire seasons are placing heavy burdens on Victoria’s firefighters. As climate change causes bushfire seasons around the world to overlap, we may not be able to draw on firefighting support from interstate and overseas as we have in the past for the ‘surge capacity’ needed during large bushfires.

How can firefighting in Victoria be modernised to tackle the climate-fuelled bushfires of the 21st century? 

With the Victorian government’s new Bushfire Management Strategy currently being finalised, the government has the opportunity to make some innovative firefighting ideas a reality that will protect people and places we love.

Join us to hear from a panel of speakers with intimate knowledge of firefighting and fire management share their ideas for strengthening our responses to bushfire.

Speakers:

• Sarah Harris, Manager Research and Development, Fire Risk, Research and Community Preparedness (CFA)

Sarah will discuss how climate change is influencing fire weather in Victoria and the implications for bushfire management and also identify some adaptation opportunities.

• Benjamin Mallinson, Program Manager – Djandak Wi (Country fire), Djaara.

The use of cultural fire to heal Dja Dja Wurrung Country.

• Dr. Philip Zylstra, fire behaviour scientist and Adjunct Associate Professor at Curtin University

Phil will show how an improved understanding of fire behaviour can guide safer and more effective deployment of remote fire fighting resources, and improved fire management practices that maximise opportunities for rapid suppression.

• Cam Walker, Friends of the Earth campaign coordinator and CFA volunteer

Cam will give an overview of a proposal for new firefighting opportunities for urban based people.

• Jordan Crook, Park Protection and Nature Campaigner, Victorian National Parks Association

Discussion will go for a bit over an hour, with time at the end for questions.

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.

The Organising training series is for anyone interested in building their activist skills across Friends of the Earth or the wider climate movement. It aims to build capacity in our collectives and broader movement.

Sign up to the series for updates and resources after each session. Whether you're able to attend or not, you can recieve the content from the workshops and stay in touch with any changes and communications on the topics of upskilling.

The workshops will run every second Tuesday 6pm-8pm with dinner provided, subject to changes for campaigning purposes. 

PROGRAM

PART 1

#1: May 9 - Organising 101

Back to the basics of organising! We’ll kick off the series by diving into looking at the systems of power upholding our current society and draw on simple frameworks we can utilise to understand how we can be effective in our organising. RSVP here.

#2: May 23 - Relational organising and Facilitation

What does relational organising look like? Join this session to learn about the power of one on one conversations in collective building and why relationships are the foundation of everything we do. Facilitation is a skill we use regularly in our collectives. This is an opportunity to also spend time reflecting on what makes a good facilitator and how we can improve our skills to get more out of our meeting processes. RSVP here.

#3: June 6 - Building our base and collective capacity

Who is our base, and how effectively does our team work together? We’ll investigate how people are currently engaging with our collectives, discuss the role of leadership in movement building and what we can do to strengthen, expand and enhance our collectives. RSVP here.

#4: June 20 - Storytelling & effective conversations

What role do narratives play in movement building? The messages we use to communicate drive our campaigns, but we can also utilise our own story as a tool to organise. This workshop utilises formats of storytelling which connect our individual experience to our community. The interactions we have with people can move them to action if we approach the exchange with an awareness of how to best connect with people on issues. RSVP here.

#5: July 4 - Building alliances

As we build alliances with impacted communities, unions, and across FoE collectives, we can draw on the wisdom of movements from the past. What is involved in coalition building and how we can prepare our collective to engage with other groups behind common concerns? RSVP here.

PART 2

#6: Aug 1 - White Supremacy Culture with guest facilitator Imo

Imo and a group of their peers founded the Racial Justice Learning collective at Tomorrow Movement, an educational space led by People Of Colour, open to anyone committed to critically engaging with racial justice content and organising.

RSVP here.

#7: Aug 29 - Mid way reflection on learnings 

This is an opportunity to look back at the months of content in part one of the organising series. How are we adapting the learnings from the workshops into the practices of our current work?

RSVP here.

Sept 12: TRANSPORT EQUITY WEEK ACTION ORGANISING

Transport Equity Week is happening September 17-23, lead by the Sustainable Cities collective. FoEM collectives will be joining organising behind this call for transport equity as an integral element of climate justice.

RSVP to join action organising with the Sustainable Cities collective here.

RSVP to join action organising with the Act on Climate collective here.

#8: Sept 26 - Climate Justice & Intersectionality with guest facilitators Jess & Kirsty Pt 1

How do we build solidarity with climate impacted marginalised communities through an intersectional feminist lense? with guest facilitators Jess Tran & Kirsty Lau. RSVP here.

#9 Oct 25 (Wednesday) - Intersectional feminist Climate Justice Visioning with guest facilitators Jess & Kirsty Pt 2

The most just, resilient, powerful, intersectional movements have a strong sense of solidarity. The purpose of this workshop is to apply our feminist climate justice learnings to our collective work. RSVP here. 

The opportunity of renewable energy should and can be available to all. But we know for many communities that affordable, secure and clean power is not yet a reality.

Members from Friends of the Earth were privileged to join an online webinar on the 30th November, 2022 for the launch of the First Nations Clean Energy Network's Ten Principles for Clean Energy Projects.

The First Nations Clean Energy Network (FNCEN) was formed to ensure First Nations People play a central role in Australia’s renewable energy transition, and to make sure this transition occurs fairly for First Nations people and communities.

The Ten Principles provide First Nations communities with guidance about how to engage with medium or large scale renewable energy projects proposed on or near their land and waters. According to the FNCEN, the Principles will also be helpful for all groups involved in developing renewable energy projects to make sure this happens in a collaborative and respectful way.

Localisation and community resilience in a time of transition.

The bayside suburbs of Melbourne are shaping up to be an important space for climate justice.

The federal Liberals suffered at the polls because of their lack of ambition on climate change. Waging a culture war instead of getting on with the energy transition has become synonymous with being unelectable.

So it's a smart move by Victorian opposition leader Matthew Guy to back renewables and net-zero emissions by 2050 in an opinion piece printed in The Age today. But there are many details in Matthew Guy’s plan that can’t go unchallenged.

The Victorian Parliament has today received evidence it can go further and faster on renewable energy to create jobs and cut emissions, just days after a watershed election dominated by the issue of climate change.

Friends of the Earth says the combined evidence of Victoria’s Parliamentary Inquiry into 100% renewable energy and strong public support for action on climate shows the Andrews government can demonstrate greater ambition.

“With the federal election result proving that political parties who take climate change seriously will be rewarded at the ballot box, will Vic Premier Dan Andrews seize the opportunity?" asked Friends of the Earth renewable energy spokesperson Pat Simons.

The Victorian government has opened up a public consultation for community members to have a say on what Emissions Reduction Target it will set for 2035. How high do you think Victoria should aim on climate? Continue reading for our guide on how you can have your say...