A letter from Climate Council CEO, Amanda McKenzie

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 letter from Climate Council CEO, Amanda McKenzie -

 

I can hardly believe it, but today marks the Climate Council’s second birthday. Had you asked me in the flurry of those first days whether I thought we’d be reaching this milestone, I don’t know that I’d have been sure of it.



Climate Council CEO,
 Amanda McKenzie.

And yet, in just two short years, we’ve helped move the debate on from a conversation on whether the science is “real” to a growing discussion about solutions. Our work on extreme weather has directly contributed to a dramatic increase in the public understanding of the influence of climate change on extreme heat, fire and floods. And through a coordinated communications campaign, we’ve made renewable energy a household conversation.

All of this has only been possible thanks to that initial support from you and 16,000 other Founding Friends. So happy second birthday to YOU! I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved together - and you should feel proud to share in the celebration, because we wouldn’t be here without you.

The thing is, we don’t want to be here for too much longer.

You see, this year marks another important milestone - a critical point on our path to robust climate action: we’re halfway through the ‘critical decade’. For 200 years the pollution driving global warming has been going up and up and up. And this is the decade during which the science tells us we need to turn that around if we are to tackle climate change.

And that’s why my job, and Tim’s job, isn’t to build an organisation that can endure for decades. We’re genuinely not interested in donations for decades ahead. In fact, my job shouldn’t exist in 5 years time.

We’re all here for one purpose: to empower an informed Australian public that ensures that, no matter the government in power, failing to act on climate change is not an option. That can’t happen without the support of people like you, and the rest of the Climate Council community. Will you help us be so successful that we don’t have to be here in five years time?

Thanks to your support, our work is already having a huge impact. But as proud as I am of our work and what we’ve achieved, we simply can’t afford to be doing it in five years. We just don’t have that kind of time. We have big plans, but we need all the support you can give right now, so we can make the biggest impact possible in the shortest possible timeframe.

We know that bringing new voices to the debate to talk about why climate change matters and what it means to real people will makes climate change relevant to bigger and more diverse audiences. That’s why we’ll work even harder to expand the voices of climate change from policy wonks and scientists to include more farmers, emergency services workers and healthcare professionals.

Will you work with us to fundamentally change the public conversation to achieve real and lasting action?

We know that people need expert, accurate information about climate change so that they can increase pressure on policymakers for real and swift action. That’s why we plan on releasing even more reports that bring home the reality of risks to our health, agriculture, property, infrastructure and natural ecosystems. And we know that to change the public conversation, we need to get the best possible information out to as many people as we can, in as many places as possible. So that's why we’ll be sharing even more examples of credible solutions that exist now to partners and on social media to millions of people each month. And it’s also why our Climate Councillors will keep spending so much of their time doing back-to-back media interviews, alongside community outreach, research and new efforts at global collaboration.

There’s really no other way to say it, this is urgent, and it’s critical. More than ever, our voice needs to be even louder and stronger. We believe we can do it, but we can’t do this without you.

Thank you for giving this your support, it really does mean everything. And again, happy second birthday!

P.S. Two years ago Tim and I lost our jobs. Believe it or not, we hope to lose them again within the next five years - but this time because Australia will have taken strong action on climate change, and our jobs won’t be needed anymore. That’s the goal, anyway. Please make a tax deductible donation today to help us do just that!

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