At last Wednesday's Planning and Development Committee meeting, Benalla councillors wee finally considering a peition, originally received by council in April this year, from 600 local residents to declare a climate emergency, and to develop plans and actions that would enable Benalla to become a net-zero emissions community by 2030.

At the meeting, councillors were addressed by two of the Benalla P-12 College student captains, Jessica Patterson and Lachie Sands.  Benalla GP Dr Gerard Brownstein, and Benalla Sustainable Future Group (BSFG) president Peter Holmes.

Councillors asked many questions of the presenters, and all indicated their acknowledgement that climate change was indeed a threat to our community's future health, social and economic wellbeing.

However, at the conclusion of the discussion, a motion was moved and passed by all councillors that the petition be noted, that the council recognizes that climate change is one of the most significant issues that will impact the social, cultural and economic and environmental health and wellbeing of our community and will act accordingly with all policies and programs of the council, and that council further considers its position on climae change during the upcoming review of the Benalla Rural City Climate Change Adaptation and Action Plan 2013-2025.

BSFG, and no doubt the wider community know that we are very disappointed with this response from our elected leaders.

Despite overwhelming worldwide evidence of the catastrophic climate-related events in recent years, and the most recent IPCC report noting that "this is the last decade the world has in which to drastically reduce greenhouse emissions in order to contain global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius", council's motion contains no indication of urgency whatsoever, and no demonstrable target to work towards in relation to reducing greenhouse emissions.

In fact, the motion, in referring to the review of Council's Climate Change Adaptation Policy, 2013-2025, as its principal document of reference for climate change, basically indicates that council will make plans about what to do "after the hourse has bolted", rather than developing plans to stop the horse bolting.

We need a Climate Change MItigation Plan to be developed, a point that was made consistently by speakers on Wednesday night.

BSFG will continue to advocate vigorously for action on mitigating climate change.

Therefore, on behalf of the Benalla community, we declare that the world faces a climate emergency, and must drastically reduce its greenhouse emissions by 2030, and Benalla must play its part in striving for these emission reductions.

BSFG calls for expressions of interest from representatives of the many key stakeholder groups across the community which will be affected by climate change, to join a community consultation "Climate Change Mitigation" group to develop ideas and plans to lead Benalla towards a net-zero emissions future, preferably by 2030.

To register interest in participating, email BSFG at bsfginc@gmail.com and provide your name, contact details and areas of interest.

Peter Holmes, Benalla

BSFG President Peter Holmes made a second presentation in support of the Climate Emergency Petition to Benalla Rural City Council, this time to the Benalla Rural City Planning and Development Committee Meeting on Wednesday 29 September via Zoom.

At the completion of the presentations and discussion, Mayor Councillor Danny Claridge moved an Amended Motion. That:

1. The Petition be noted.
2. That council recognises that climate change is one of the most significant issues that will impact the social, cultural, economic and environmental health and wellbeing of our community and will act accordingly with all policies and programs of the council.
3. That the council further considers its position on climate change during the upcoming review of the Benalla Rural City Climate Change Adaptation Plan 2013-2025.

Seconded Cr Punarji Hewa Gunaratne
​
​Motion Carried

We are aware it wasn't easy to watch the presentation of our Climate Emergency petition to Council's Planning and Development meeting live-streamed on Wednesday night.  It wasn't easy to locate and was later in the meeting program than anticipated. If you missed it you may be interested in the following:

To watch a recording of Wednesday’s BRC Planning and Development meeting, go to www.benalla.vic.gov.au and on the Homepage, scroll down to “Livestream Council Meeting”, and on that page, click on watch on our Youtube Channel, and finally, select Planning and Development meeting 29th September. 

The discussion re the Climate emergency petition starts at the 1hr and 4 minute mark of the recording. You might wish to continue watching through to when the Mayor, Danny Claridge moved a motion (2hr,14 min) and the ensuing 11 minutes of comments by various Councillors about the motion and their views on climate change.

Alternatively, you can watch it on the link below.

BSFG members and supporters - we are asking you to support the presentation of our Climate Emergency Petition to the Planning and Development Committee meeting of Council on Wednesday 29th September. 

Due to COVID-19 Restrictions the Planning and Development Committee meeting will be held electronically commencing at the completion of the 6pm Council Meeting and will be broadcast live at www.benalla.vic.gov.au  

BSFG and other community leaders will address the Planning and Development Committee via zoom regarding the Climate Emergency Petition. The petition will be item 4 on the agenda of the Planning and Development Committee meeting. You could help by logging in to the livestream (6pm) even if you just keep an eye out and watch the Climate Emergency petition presentation. To log in to the meeting, go to www.benalla.vic.gov.au and on the home page scroll down to “Live stream Council Meetings”.

This will be the culmination of over 18 months of efforts to bring this discussion to a point of definitive action by our community leaders, and your support by  “attending” the meeting online will be very important.

Judy Schwarzman
Secretary, BSFG

"CEO, Mayor and Councillors – thank you for opportunity to talk to you

I represent a group of approximately 80 paid up members, and 400 other community members with whom we are in regular contact. All of us, and many more within this community, share a very real concern about the current and future health of our planet. We recognise that there is irrefutable scientific evidence that human induced climate change is occurring, that the data trends on temperature, rainfall, sea levels, ice-cap melts, and greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, are all heading in the wrong direction, and more significantly, the rates of change are not actually slowing down.

We understand that having recognised the problem, we have an urgent responsibility to do all we can to fix it, because we have a responsibility, not just to our present generation, but to all who follow. We are acutely aware that as the Earth continues to warm, many regions will become uninhabitable, our food production systems will completely break down, our health systems will struggle to cope with the increased number of diseases, and the rate of creature extinctions will accelerate. This is not a future I, and all of us here want to leave for our descendants.

The problem with climate change is, that it appears to be happening so slowly, that we don't all quite see the urgency, unlike the coronavirus pandemic. The reality is however, that in Earth years it is happening rapidly, because over the last 200 years, this is the first time there have been so many humans on the planet, and all of our processes have become so industrialised, and dependent on energy consumption - energy largely produced by burning fossil fuels, releasing greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. What we also need to understand, is that there are critical areas on our planet that control the weather, and a number of these places have possibly already reached their climate tipping points, from which it will be extremely difficult to pull back. Eg. the Arctic region is already 3.5 degrees warmer than pre-industrial times, compared to the average increase across the whole of Earth of 1.2 degrees. Already in the Arctic, permafrost ice has melted, resulting in methane gas escaping into the atmosphere, and this gas is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

The solutions are not simple, but not impossible either. We just need the collective political and community will to achieve what is required. Unfortunately, over the past couple of decades, action has been suppressed by various means, so that now we have reached the point where the solutions need to be implemented so much more urgently, than if we had started 20 years ago.

There are 2 major parts to the solution. Firstly, we must stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere (we were able to achieve repair of the ozone layer by virtually eliminating the use of hydrofluorocarbons), and we need to do this much sooner than 2050. Climate Scientists are telling us that on all the current evidence available, we need to do this by 2030, if warming is to be kept below 1.5 to 2 degrees. The second part is that we also need to draw down carbon from the atmosphere, because if we don't, the carbon that we have already put up there will continue to magnify the effects for decades to come.

We believe that the solutions are not just the responsibility of government, but all sectors of our communities must take action. Federal and State governments obviously have a role to play in enacting legislation and policies that facilitate solutions, so that businesses and individuals can then more readily make the changes required. But, we as a community and Local Government have just as important a role to play, in agitating and advocating for change, and in leading by example.

So what are we requesting Council to do? Over the past month, I appreciated the opportunity to chat with most of you about climate change, and to ask you to share your thoughts on Council's role in tackling this problem. All who I talked with acknowledged that climate change is real, but not all agreed that the problem was urgent, or that council could do any more than they perceived it was already doing. Some even suggested that to take all the required actions might send Council broke. Our concern is that not to take the required actions now, will certainly put future generations in this community in a very precarious position, as they struggle with livability, health, and economic issues - all of which will be on a much greater scale of difficulty than we presently face.

We acknowledge that Council has already undertaken a number of measures which reduce the municipality's greenhouse gas emissions. Amongst these are the installation of solar systems on Council properties, residential street lighting upgrades (which are currently saving around $50,000 and 250 tonnes of GHG annually), and Council building lighting upgrades, planning being undertaken to introduce EVs to the Council fleet, planning for cabling to be installed in a new carpark for EV charging points, solar battery off-grid at the landfill facility, and we also acknowledge Council's role in approving planning applications for a number of solar farms in the district, which although assisting with reducing greenhouse gases, cannot be directly counted in our own municipality's reductions. All these actions are excellent, but there are many others that we believe will send an even stronger message to the community, and that will actually convey to the community that there is hope for a better future.

BSFG is not going to present you with a complete list here tonight, as we believe that is a function of a community consultation exercise which we hope can be urgently implemented, not just as part of the Council Plan discussions currently underway, but as a dedicated discussion around the topic of climate change action. We think there are a number of advocacy roles that council can undertake, such as facilitating large battery storage installation adjacent to the solar farms, and encouraging new technology industries to Benalla - industries associated with renewable power production and EV sales and maintenance are 2 that come to mind. Other areas we have identified as possible are the further upgrading to LED lighting in all residential street areas of Benalla and surrounding townships (which again will lead to an additional saving of $50,000 and 250 tonnes of GHG per year), signing up to greenpower electricity plans, identifying suitable EV charging station locations in Benalla, and encouraging suppliers to install them now, advocate for electric buses  on our town bus routes, develop a much more extensive bike lane route around Benalla to encourage more students to ride to school, and residents to ride to the shops, further upgrades of our landfill to possibly introduce a recycle material Tip-shop, and through council's planning department, encourage developers and builders to establish sustainable communities with cooler green open spaces, and higher star rating buildings which will considerably reduce energy consumption. Some of these suggestions will require an initial financial outlay, but in a short period of time will be paid back in savings, as well as far into the future.  

We have come here tonight to respectfully request that Council receives our petition, signed by approximately 600 residents, from all walks of life, across all age groups. These people are not lunatic, scare-mongering Greenies, as some in the media like to portray us - there are farmers, business people, health professionals, shop assistants, students, pensioners, factory workers, educators, and environmentalists all included in this petition. Our request is that Council:

1. Acknowledges that human actions have contributed substantially to the increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere, resulting in the warming of the planet, and leading to an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events
2. Declares a Climate Emergency, and that within six months, it implements policies and actions to reduce our community's greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2030.

Peter Holmes
​BSFG President
March 24th 2021"
 

National Climate Emergency Summit - Melbourne 14th, 15th Feb 2020

The Melbourne Town Hall was filled to capacity last Friday and Saturday, as 2000 people, representing all age groups, all walks of life, most States of Australia, and across the political spectrum, attended both plenary and workshop sessions, over the two days. Delegates included representatives from Benalla Rural City Council and Benalla Sustainable Future Group

They were addressed by over 100 speakers - climate and other scientists, business leaders, social justice advocates, health professionals, lawyers, engineers, journalists, economists, indigenous leaders, student climate  leaders, and politicians - both past and present, Liberal, ALP, Greens and Independents.

The key messages that came through to all delegates at the Summit, were that the World, and in particular developed countries, and most essentially Australia, must urgently tackle the existential threat of climate change, with a government of national unity, and a Cabinet of experts who can utilise all the resources of knowledge and materials that we have to defeat this "enemy of climate change", rather like the free world did to mobilize itself in the world wars.

Why? Because, as the science has been showing us for decades, the Earth has been warming at an increasing rate, principally due to human activity, and it is rapidly approaching critical climate "tipping points", from which it will be impossible to prevent a human and ecological catastrophe.

All speakers were extremely critical of Australia's weak emission reduction target of 26-28% by 2050, describing this as just "kicking the can down the road" for future generations to deal with the problem. The reality is that Australia contributes over 5% of the Earth's greenhouse emissions through its own domestic activities, and its exports of coal and gas overseas - not just the 1.3% claimed by the government. This makes Australia the fourth highest polluting country in the world, with just 25 million of the 7.5 billion people who live on Earth!

Setting targets of zero net emissions by 2050 were also described as hopelessly inadequate - climate scientists warned a few years ago that we have until 2030 at the latest to reach that target.
If the world continues on its present path of burning fossil fuels and releasing even more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, it will not meet the Paris Climate Agreement objective of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, but will instead heat up by 3 to 4 degrees by mid to late this century, making life impossible for billions of people through drought and famine, diseases, rising sea levels, and resulting in the mass extinctions of much of the Earth's flora and fauna.

This is not the future that the 2000 delegates want to see inflicted on our planet. The urgency of the crisis has been demonstrated quite clearly to Australians this summer and in recent years through prolonged drought, catastrophic bushfires, severe hailstorms and flooding rain events - and all of these have been exacerbated by just one degree of warming!

So what solutions did the Summit propose?

Of primary importance, Australia must be a world leader in rapidly restructuring its economy, away from its reliance on fossil fuels, as it is blessed with the natural resources of sun, wind and waves to power its entire economy, and export surplus power to Asia. Communities that currently rely on fossil fuel industries must be financially and socially assisted in this transition. The electricity network grid in Australia requires enormous upgrades to cope with the influx of renewable energy, and part of this upgrade is the installation of large-scale battery storage facilities. The transport sector must be redeveloped with electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles. Agriculture must play its part too, as there are serious ramifications for the Earth if vegetation clearing continues unabated, and soil degradation leads to decreasing food production.

The Summit was told that not only do we need to stop emitting more greenhouse gases into our atmosphere, but we need to draw down carbon dioxide which we have already sent there. Various speakers from science and engineering fields detailed the techniques that are already available, or that could be utilised in the future, in order to do this draw-down, so that the Earth could cool again.

At the final plenary session on Saturday evening, delegates were addressed by 3 speakers. The first was 14 year old schoolboy, Zel Whiting from Adelaide, reporting on the student workshop that had been held during the Summit, at which it was determined to continue fighting for action and justice on behalf of future generations. One could not help but be moved by the clarity of thought, and the desperation of the message that these young people bring to the world. The second speaker was Cr. Trent McCarthy from Darebin City Council in Melbourne, the first Council in the world to declare a Climate Emergency in 2016. Over 100 delegates representing 77 local government jurisdictions in Australia met on Saturday morning, and resolved to "commit to work together as a partisan group" to find solutions to the climate emergency.

The final speaker was Ian Dunlop, former chair of the Australian Coal Association and CEO of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Mr Dunlop, along with Dr John Hewson (former leader of the Liberal Party), Carmen Lawrence (former WA Premier), Dr Kerryn Phelps (former head of AMA and Independent MHR for Wentworth), and Tim Costello (former CEO of World Vision Australia), co-authored a Declaration of Climate Emergency to the Parliament of Australia, calling for a government of National Unity to tackle the climate crisis, and outlining a course of action that will be required if we are going to save the world from a looming humanitarian and ecological disaster. It is a rallying call to all Australians to confront and overcome the enemy that is climate change.

Peter Holmes
President

Since the week commencing Monday January 27th 2020 BSFG has been collecting signatures from Benalla Residents requesting our Councillors Declare a Climate Emergency.

The wording on the petition is;

CLIMATE EMERGENCY DECLARATION PETITION

We, the undersigned residents of Benalla Rural City, request our Councillors to:

• Acknowledge that human actions have contributed substantially to the increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere, resulting in the warming of the planet, and leading to an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events
• Declare that the Earth is facing a Climate Emergency.

The main location to sign the petition is outside the Bendigo Bank in Bridge Street Benalla and this was done during the following two weeks.  There may be other opportunities to sign the petition here.  The petition is also available to sign at North East Artisans in Bridge Street Benalla.


Additional times and locations to sign the petition. Bendigo Bank from 13th until 27th February 9.30pm until 4.00pm, the Food Co-op, Swanpool Cinema, the Lakeside Market on 22nd February, and at the Public Meeting “Climate - Present Facts and Future Predictions”at BPACC on March 19th (see below and more details to follow).

Download our climate change flyer.

See https://climateemergencydeclaration.org/.

Presentation of Petition to Council Wednesday March 25 2020.
BSFG will present the Climate Emergency Declaration Petition to Benalla Rural City Councillors at the Council Meeting on Wednesday March 25th 2020 from 6:00pm at the Council Meeting Room, Mair Street Benalla.

Public Meeting “Climate - Present Facts and Future Predictions” Thursday March 19 2020.
Prior to the presentation to council BSFG is hosting a public meeting titled “Climate-Present Facts and Future Predictions” from 7.00pm until 10.00pm on Thursday March 19th 2020 at the Benalla Performing Arts and Convention Centre.

Our guest speakers are Dr Leanne Webb from CSIRO Climate Research Institute in Aspendale, and Dr Lynette Bettio from the Bureau of Meteorology in Melbourne.  This is a rare opportunity to hear about Climate Science first hand, from scientists at the forefront of climate research, together with an opportunity to ask them questions.

State and Federal Members of Parliament (Steph Ryan, Jaclyn Symes and Dr Helen Haines) have also been invited to attend.  There will also be a brief talk by the Mayor of Indigo Shire, Jenny O’Connor, related to her Shire’s declaration of a Climate Emergency, and their proposed actions related to that declaration.

We will be publicising more details about this most important event through the BSFG website and newsletter, social media, the Benalla Ensign, Benalla P-12 College, Benalla FCJ College, and elsewhere.

Peter Maddock
Secretary
0418 135 330

The BSFG Committee is preparing a Climate Emergency petition requesting Benalla Rural City Council Declare a Climate Emergency, joining in excess of 80 in Australia and 1,315 jurisdictions and local governments globally covering 810 million citizens.

The petition is for Benalla Rural City residents to sign and we are seeking assistance from BSFG members to go on a roster to collect signatures and hand out our flyer, initially next week on Tuesday (28th), Thursday (30th), and Friday (31st). Hours would be from 9.00-12.30 and 12.30-4.00 i.e. 2 separate shifts preferably with 2 people on each shift.

Peter Holmes has permission to set up a table and small A-frame outside Bendigo Bank to collect signatures for the CE petition.

We also need to organise the delivery and collection of the card table, chairs and sandwich board on each day – again by roster.

Please contact Peter on 0438 625 6358 to be added to the roster.

This media release was prepared for and published in Benalla's 'Ensign' on 15 January 2020. 

"Benalla Sustainable Future Group (BSFG) wrote to Benalla Rural City Council last week, asking them to exercise their discretion to allow the image of Greta Thunberg to remain on the window of the Council Customer Service Centre.
​
The group wrote: "We view this painting as a powerful statement that here is a community that cares, not only about the present wellbeing of its citizens, but the future as well. Greta is a beacon of hope for millions of people, both young and old, around the world, and a hero for them as she challenges the world's leaders to take immediate and urgent action to mitigate climate change.
​
Climate change action is not a political issue, as some would have us believe. It is an environmental, social, economic and ethical issue, and we are right now experiencing one of the most devastating effects predicted long ago by climate scientists, as a result of the warming and drying of our part of the Earth.

We need to take a stand on the issue of climate change, and what better way can there be for Council to demonstrate their support for action, than to leave Greta's image on the window."

BSFG President, Peter Holmes, says the group is extremely disappointed with Council's response, in which they simply reiterated that the painting was part of the Window to Window Festival, and would be removed this week. He noted that none of the reasons BSFG offered in the letter to Council were addressed in their response, and hoped that this is not indicative of Council's attitude towards addressing the issue of mitigating climate change.

"Seven years ago, I was part of a community consultation group, organised by Council, to develop a Climate Change Adaptation Plan. Back then, we were probably thinking that the world had until about 2050 to make things right! Well, things have changed drastically, even in that short space of time, with temperature records being broken virtually every year, rainfall decreasing significantly, and now Australia is in the grip of a wildfire crisis that has cost at least 26 lives directly, burnt over 10 million hectares of forest and farmland, destroyed over 2000 homes and many more buildings, and killed an estimated 500 million creatures, many to the point of extinction," Mr Holmes said.

BSFG says that there is no longer room in our parliaments or local governments for debate about whether climate change is real. The discussion and the action must now be about urgently mitigating the causes of climate change, and not about "papering over the cracks" every time we experience another disaster. This discussion must be bipartisan, and above party political motives.

Mr Holmes indicated that BSFG believes, along with many others in the community, that an excellent way for Benalla Rural City to respond, is to declare that there is a Climate Emergency (as have 85 other local government councils in Australia). BRC should then convene a group of community leaders from business, health, energy, transport, environment, and most importantly, youth sectors, to work with Council officers to develop and implement initiatives that will rapidly make BRC a zero emissions community, and therefore make a major contribution to the mitigation of the worst effects of climate change."

"As we approach the end of another calendar year, the evidence grows ever so much stronger that the Earth faces a climate crisis due to human induced activity, and yet, our political leaders still refuse to acknowledge that strong action must be taken to arrest the escalation of the problem.

This year, we have seen fires in the Arctic, the continued melting of the ice caps and glaciers, including the Earth's thickest glacier, sea levels continue to rise, record temperatures around the globe, catastrophic fires in California, and over the past few weeks at home in NSW and Queensland, with the real fire season yet to commence! For the first time, NSW was faced with a catastrophic weather forecast day on the 12th November - a combination of high temperatures, no humidity and high winds, with around 40 fires already burning out of control. Coincidentally, in the same week, the whole of Australia recorded its first ever rain free day!

I am not going to be restrained in what I write about the pathetic and disgraceful lack of leadership we have in this country.

For starters, Deputy Prime Minister McCormack, and his National Party cohort, Barnaby Joyce, should both be expelled from Parliament for their senseless and outrageous comments in the midst of the bushfire crisis in NSW. Prime Minister Morrison refused to be engaged on whether the early onset of the fires and their intensity could in some way be attributed to climate change. "Now is not the time to talk about climate change", he opined!

But Prime Minister, you never want to talk about climate change, unlike your counterpart across the Tasman! You don't want to upset your mates in the fossil fuel industries. You are more concerned with pretending to keep electricity prices down by a few dollars by propping up coal power, than by supporting renewable energy, which will make the planet safer and ultimately, the cost of living cheaper, because renewable energy will be cheaper, and our insurance premiums won't skyrocket, as they will under your disaster laden policies (that's something politicians haven't been talking about).

Why also, is the Labor Party even talking about emulating the Liberal Party's policies, on exporting coal (Albanese's reasoning that, "if we don't do it then another country will, and Australia will miss out", beggars belief), and on renewable energy and emissions reduction, when climate scientists universally are saying this is not within a bull's roar of being enough?

​The time for political argy-bargy is over. All parties must come to their senses and show some statesmanship on this crisis. Isn't that what they called it during the World Wars when the world was in the grips of a different crisis?

​In the coming weeks, BSFG will be seeking agreement from Benalla City councillors to pass a motion declaring that we have a Climate Emergency, as over 75 local government areas around Australia have already done. This will mean that all management and planning decisions made by Council need to consider the impact on greenhouse emissions, with the aim of reducing and even eliminating them. I ask all members and supporters to be encouraging of this action. Please take whatever opportunity you may have to talk to Councillors and communicate the urgency of the situation.

Finally, I acknowledge that all of us have been contributing our own personal efforts over many years to reduce the levels of greenhouse emissions, and to live a more sustainable lifestyle, but we have now reached the point where micro efforts are no longer enough. Only the macro changes that can be enforced by government legislation and political common sense will now turn the tide.

Peter Holmes