More pics from strategy session

Photos from AYCC Strategy Session 2-3rd Feb

New AYCC website

The new AYCC website is www.youthclimatecoalition.org
This one will no longer be updated!


Hi everyone,

* Please distribute to your networks and members*

We all know climate change is a huge problem, and will require strongaction to ensure a transition to a clean energy future. The time to take action is now, and we need your voice, your energy, and your helpto make it happen. What better day to put some pressure on ourpoliticans and let them know that climate change is a priority forAustralian youth than World Kyoto Day – this Friday. This Friday 16th February the Australian Youth Climate Coalition(AYCC) is launching a cinema ad and a youth declaration on climatechange.

The Youth Climate Coalition is a non-partisan coalition aiming to mobilise young people to demand immediate and meaningful action onclimate change by government and private sector leaders. We have developed a kick-ass cinema ad that will be screened in cinemas allover Australia, starting with Bondi and Randwick, the electorates of Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Federal ShadowEnvironment Minister Peter Garrett.

Pilot Training Day Great Success

The first Training Day for Youth Climate Organisers was held in Erskineville yesterday. Organised by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, the training day was created to support young people intending to get active on climate change. While most of the 17 trainees were from New South Wales, some travelled from as far afield as Melbourne and Brisbane for the day to learn how to effectively target the issue.

Presenters included John Kaye, who with his extensive knowledge of the renewable energy industry, highlighted the problems with unproven technologies such as geosequestration and current government nonsolutions such as an Australian nuclear energy industry.

Although the training day was the first event organised by the AYCC, feedback was overwhelmingly positive

“Good tight structuring. Facilitating and organising was excellent.”
“Comfortable, inclusive atmosphere.”
“Great presenters – knowledgeable and enthusiastic…”
“Overall, awesome – inspiring.”

Iniatives such as this are important for the movement as our Government’s inability to implement the necessary reduction targets of carbon and carbon equivalent emissions has generated a common frustration amongst many young Australians. Especially now as climate change has become a key election issue at a state level and nationally, it has become “unavoidable” for some to try to make change as individuals to ensure our climate security.

- Michelle Yang, AYCC Steering Committee Member (Melbourne)

Sydney Youth Climate Organisers Training this Sunday

Are you aged 17 – 25? Interested in getting involved in climate change activism? The Australian Youth Climate Coalition is running a training program for young people concerned about climate change and wishing to get involved in doing something about it!

Where: Australian Student Environment Office, Erskineville Date: Sunday 11th February 2007 Time: 9am- 6pm

If interested, please email climate.coalition@gmail.com for an application form. Program is below:

Program for Youth Climate Organisers Training Program

Location: Australian Student Environment Network Sydney Office – 19 Eve St, Erskineville

9.00 Welcome to Country
9.15 Introductions & Participants Agreements
9.40 The science and impacts of Climate Change and energy solutions
10.40 Morning Tea
11.00 The Politics of Climate Change in Australia
12.15 Campaign Strategy Training
1.00 Lunch
2.00 Campaign Strategy Training 2
2.45 Break
3.00 Meeting facilitation Training
4.30 The Youth Climate Coalition and Campus Climate Challenge: How can you get involved? 5.30 Evaluation
6.00 Dinner/ drinks at 'The Rose' pub, Erskineville

Volunteers Needed

Volunteer Positions Open

Designers
· Are you a graphic designer, or know anyone who is?
· We need a logo for the Australian Youth Climate Coalition that is funky, exciting and attention-grabbing. Potential for further project work in the future including developing graphics and design for web page.
· Deadline: Monday 5th February 2006 for the logo

Web Forum Moderators
· As part of the AYCC website we're developing, we will have a 'forum' section where members of the AYCC can contribute, share news, ask questions, and post events.
· We need 8-10 forum moderators from across the country who will check and update the site at least once a day to post interesting, thoughtful, relevant and current material.
· Time requirement: check the site once daily until December 2007
· Deadline: ongoing

Digital Organisers
· DEADLINE Ongoing
· We are looking for good web contractors to work on an ongoing or project basis to help us develop our web page(s). Skills with php, mysql, wordpress, LAMP, drupal, xhtml/css/xml, javascript required.

Local Media Co-ordinators (Launch - February 16th)
· We need at least one person in each city/ town that AYCC has a presence in to co-ordinate local media for the day of the launch.
· This involves: faxing/ emailing out a press release, calling journalists, being prepared to be interviewed on tv/ radio/ newspapers, and compiling all the media that you got on the day.

Trainings for Youth Climate Leaders

Currently the AYCC steering committee is developing a training curriculum for all young Australians who want to get the skills, knowledge and inspiration to become effective climate advocates. The trainings will be in two sessions, 6 weeks apart, and cover topics including: Climate Science, Impacts and Solutions; The Politics of Climate Change; Developing a campaign strategy; Facilitating a meeting; Media Training; Developing a Theory of Change; and Public Speaking.

The Sydney training is scheduled for Saturday 3rd February (9am - 6pm) and Saturday 3rd March 2007. If you can't wait that long to get trained up, then you can come along to the Australian Student Environment Network Summer Training Camp held in Canberra from January 20th – 25th 2007. It is a five-day training camp for youth activists taking on organising roles in their communities, campus collectives and state networks. We aim to skillshare with new organisers, network between campuses, and develop strong and vibrant networks across Australia for 2007 and beyond! For more information go to http://www.asen.org.au/ and click on Training Camp information. Applications have officially closed but there are a few spots for late applicants (especially from rural and regional areas), so get your skates on!

ps - In case who you're wondering who the beautiful young women in the photo are, they are members of the AYCC having fun at the founding summit! Clare (Brisbane, from UQ Environment Collective; Rosie (Perth, from the United Nations Youth Association WA) and Sophie (Adelaide, from the SA Youth Environment Council).

Australian Youth Take on Climate

In late November, the national founding summit of the Australian Youth Climate Change Coalition took place in Melbourne. 65 young people aged 15-30 attended, representing 30 different youth and youth-friendly organisations.

Sixty young people representing thirty-five organisations met to develop a joint approach to climate change, to ensure that government takes the issue seriously, rather than just making vague statements, launching token projects, and backing off from real action.

Conference organiser, Anna Rose, 23, said today that, "Global warming is the biggest threat my generation faces. We’ve come together here in Melbourne to create strategies to communicate the concerns we have to politicians and business to make sure they actually take some serious action before its too late”.

“Australia must sign Kyoto and commit to legally binding carbon emission reduction targets, rather than distractions like nuclear, geosequestration and ‘clean coal’. The fossilised government needs to invest in our future through renewable energy.”

Some of the diverse range of young people attending include students, representatives of local youth councils, environment groups, youth media makers, and young business professionals from every state.

"This summit aims to bring together youth representatives who care about climate change to make climate a mainstream issue for young people and send a message to governments that we aren’t impressed with rhetoric - we want change, and we want it now”, stated Simon Sheikh from the United Nations Youth Association.

The coalition organising the event are the Australian Student Environment Centre, GetUp!, United Nations Youth Association and OzGreen. The youth declaration drafted at the summit will be released on the official launch date of the coalition – World Kyoto Day, Feb 16th 2007 – once it has received organisational assent from the groups at the summit.

The five action priorities decided upon by the coalition are: (1) organising youth climate conferences; (2) a national day of youth mobilisation on climate change; (3) a schools and Universities strategy (such as expanding ASEN’s existing campus climate challenge); (4) an elections strategy (eg mobilising young people to enrol to vote and vote for climate-friendly candidates); (5) a ‘making caring about climate change cool’ pop culture campaign to educate and mobilise youth on the issue.

Stay tuned for the official launch of the coalition on Feb 16th, 2007!

Media inquiries contact Anna Rose at climate.coalition@gmail.com