Darebin Climate Action Now are having a lot of success in signing up council candidates from across the political spectrum. You can do something similar in your council! Here is the material they sent to the candidates. Use it for inspiration.
1. Climate science
Do you accept the views of climate scientists that:
a. the earth is already too hot?
b. we face a climate emergency?
c. greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to zero within years, not decades, and we must safely draw down the excess carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere?
2. Climate action
If elected will you:
a. educate Darebin residents and stakeholders about the climate emergency and put pressure on other levels of government to act?
b. initiate and support Council measures to rapidly reduce Darebin’s emissions towards net zero and draw down carbon dioxide?
c. initiate and support measures to protect vulnerable people and ecosystems within the municipality from dangerous climate impacts?
» The questionnaire for candidates (Microsoft Word document)
Letter for candidates
Below is the email Darebin Climate Action Now sent to the council candidates with the climate emergency declaration questionnaire and pledge photo form. You will probably need something like this to explain the questions to candidates.
Dear Darebin Council candidate
Darebin Climate Action Now is a local group campaigning for emergency action on the climate crisis. We have over 3,000 supporters. We would be very grateful if you would complete the attached questionnaire and return it to the email address above before 9am on Monday 26 September.
If you have answered ‘yes’ to all the questions on the questionnaire, and are willing to sign the candidate’s Climate Emergency Declaration we would appreciate it if you would print it off, write your name in the space provided, have someone take a picture of you holding the declaration, and return that to us as well.
If you are the contact person for another candidate as well as yourself, would you please forward this email.
Background
Australia has signed up to the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well under two degrees Celsius of warming, and leave open the possibility of remaining under 1.5°C degrees of warming. However, most people have no idea that for a 90% chance of staying under two degrees of warming, our remaining carbon budget is already zero.
Also, not well known is the fact that all scenarios examined by the IPCC that give some chance of staying under 1.5°C degrees of warming assume massive drawdown of the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, using technologies which are not yet commercially available at scale.
Consequently, Darebin Climate Action Now is seeking support from across the political spectrum for the declaration of a climate emergency, a transition to zero emissions as fast as humanly possible, and a rapid scaling up of methods to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.
Darebin Council could be an important part of this transition by virtue of actions within the municipality, and via pressure on the state and federal governments. We would very much appreciate your support.
If you would like to read a summary of the climate science, we recommend David Spratt’s Climate Reality Check.
Your answers will be considered as part of our background research for three scorecards compiled by the Darebin Community Network – one for each of the three wards. The scorecards will be promoted on social media and delivered to over 30,000 homes. They will also be promoted on our website and linked to our Facebook page.
Kind regards
• A4 sheet for council sign-on
• Toolbox