Climate summit in Nagambie

Rural councils from across Victoria will descend on Strathbogie Shire in May for a summit to address the changing climate and demographics of regional municipalities.

Councillors and local government staff will join with business and industry leaders, economic and community development officers, academics and education providers to discuss the challenges.

‘‘This summit aims to equip all these leaders with the information, skills and capacity to respond to the ever-changing environment we are facing,’’ Strathbogie Shire Mayor Amanda McClaren said.

She said the theme Does Size Matter? Doing More with Less reflected what local government aspired to, by addressing national and global issues with limited time and resources.

The summit features Craig Reucassel from ABC TV and climate change specialist Charlotte Turner.

Speakers also include Victorian Gender and Sexuality Commissioner and Violet Town local Rowena Allen and Victorian Small Business and Local Government Minister Adem Somyurek.

A Rural Youth Summit for those aged 18 to 25 will be held to coincide and integrate with the summit proper, recognising the importance of this demographic to rural Victoria.

• The Rural Council’s Victoria Summit will take place at Mitchelton Wines in Nagambie from Wednesday, May 6, to Friday, May 8

Story from The Shepparton News - “Climate summit in Nagambie.”

United Nations Says 80 Countries May Ramp Up Climate Pledges

UNITED NATIONS — About 80 countries want to increase their climate pledges ahead of schedule under the Paris climate accord, the United Nations said Tuesday, signaling that some of them would do so at a summit of world leaders in September.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres
 has made climate change a signature issue.

Luis Alfonso de Alba, a Mexican diplomat who is currently the United Nations Secretary General’s envoy on climate change, declined to say which countries were expected to announce higher climate ambitions, nor whether they would be enough to make a difference to the fate of the world.

Even if every country were to meet the pledges already made under the 2015 Paris agreement — and they are nowhere on track to do so — it would be insufficient to avert the worst effects of climate change. An “exponential increase in ambition,” Mr. de Alba said, is needed.

Read the story from The New York Times by Somini Sengupta - “United Nations Says 80 Countries May Ramp Up Climate Pledges.”

David Attenborough: collapse of civilisation is on the horizon

The collapse of civilisation and the natural world is on the horizon, Sir David Attenborough has told the UN climate change summit in Poland.

The naturalist was chosen to represent the world’s people in addressing delegates of almost 200 nations who are in Katowice to negotiate how to turn pledges made in the 2015 Paris climate deal into reality.

As part of the UN’s people’s seat initiative, messages were gathered from all over the world to inform Attenborough’s address on Monday. “Right now we are facing a manmade disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate change,” he said. “If we don’t take action, the collapse of our civilisations and the extinction of much of the natural world is on the horizon.”

Read the story from The Guardian by Damian Carrington - “David Attenborough: collapse of civilisation is on the horizon.”

Lack of climate policy threatens to trip up Australian diplomacy this summit season

Australia has navigated a somewhat stormy passage through the Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru. Scott Morrison’s new-look government faced renewed accusations at the summit about the strength of Australia’s resolve on climate policy.

Australia’s climate stance risks its standing on the world stage.

Australia is neither a small nation nor one of the most powerful, but for many years it has been a trusted nation. Historically, Australia has been seen as a good international citizen, a country that stands by its international commitments and works with others to improve the international system, not undermine it.

But in recent years climate change has threatened this reputation. This is especially so among our allies and neighbours in the Pacific region, who attended this week’s Nauru summit.

Read the piece from The Conversation by Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow from the Australian National University, Christian Downie - “Lack of climate policy threatens to trip up Australian diplomacy this summit season.”

Beneath the Wisteria on Saturday

Saturday’s Beneath the Wisteria falls on the same day as the AFL grand final.

Beneath the Wisteria"s
Robert McLean.

However, Beneath the Wisterians will still gather at the northern end of Shepparton’s Maude St  Mall at 11:00 am to hear a report about, and discuss, the recent national Transition Communities summit held in Melbourne.

The summit, organized by the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV), brought together Transition  Towns representatives from many part of Australia to discuss and hear about the movements’ latest innovations.

Transition Towns founder, Rob Hopkins, spoke at the summit, via a pre-recorded video clip, emphasising the need to people to continue with the ideals of helping build resilience into their respective communities.

The movement began at Totnes, in the United Kingdom, in 2006 in response to concerns about oil shortages (peak oil) and climate disruption with the aim of creating a degree of self reliance within communities.

Beneath the Wisteria convenor, Robert McLean, represented Tatura Transition Towns at the two-day summit will discuss the event, how communities are responding to the climate challenge and building the necessary resilience.

Saturday’s gathering starts at 11:00 am, lasts for about an hour, is free, and open to all comers. Some public seating is available, but those attending are advised to bring a folding chair.

More information from Robert at 0400  502 199 or via email.

Partnership could influence energy-intensive companies to cut emissions

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 partnership between CDP, UN Global Compact, World Resources Institute and WWF launches today, to encourage influential energy-intensive companies from around the world to set carbon emission reduction targets which are in line with climate science.

Announced today at the Business and Climate Summit during Climate Week Paris – which is convened by The Climate Group – the ambitious Science Based Target initiative aims to recruit 100 companies by the end of 2015, who by joining, will offer a leading example to their peers by setting emission targets compliant with the scientifically-acknowledged global temperature rise limit of 2 degrees Celsius.

The new targets are critical because even though 80% of the biggest 500 companies in the world told CDP they had emission reduction goals in place in 2014, only a few of those reached the scale required to properly address the threat of climate change.

Read the story here - “Climate science gives competitive advantage to big companies including Mars, Enel and CLP Holdings”.

Paris talks vastly more successful than Copenhagen catastrophe

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limate talks this year in Paris should be vastly more successful than those that fell apart on Copenhagen in 2009.

Executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, said countries were ahead of schedule in negotiating a landmark global agreement on curbing greenhouse gases that can be adopted at a Paris summit in December.

Christina Figueres.

“We’re in a very, very different position to Copenhagen, not just from a procedural point of view, but from many other points of view,” Figueres told reporters during a visit to Australia.

Rod McGuirk, of Associated Press, writing on TheStar.com, quoted Figueres during a recent visit to Australia, who said, “We’re in a very, very different position to Copenhagen, not just from a procedural point of view, but from many other points of view.”

McGirk’s story is headed: “Paris summit on climate change should be much smoother than Copenhagen, U.N. climate chief predicts."