Towards a Clean Energy Future: A Youth Climate Change Coalition

NOTE DATE CHANGE: 20TH - 22ND NOVEMBER

In 2005, the hottest year on record, Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma, as well as the cyclones such as Larry in northern Australia, provided a wake-up call for a world still largely asleep to our climate crisis. This awakening, coupled with an unpopular war and rising energy prices, has set the stage for a major shift in public concern over our current energy path, and renewed demand for aggressive action by our political leaders. We stand at a moment of critical opportunity, now ready to build a truly mass movement in Australia to stop climate change and build a clean energy future.

At other times in our history, youth have been the vanguards of such movements. Climate change is quickly becoming the hottest issue for campus organising, and youth are poised to lead the way once again. A major united effort from Australian youth organisations now could unleash tremendous grassroots energy towards making local, state and national change; influence the consumption and voting patterns of the critical 18 – 35 demographic; and inspire thousands of bright young people to become lifelong climate advocates.

The mission of the Youth Climate Coalition is to build a generation-wide movement to stop climate change. Through a carefully targeted strategy, we can help communicate the facts on climate change, along with a sense of hope that solutions are available. By empowering the generation most threatened by climate change to be front and centre in solving it, we can make this an urgent and mainstream issue for society as a whole.

Building such a coalition requires participation from all youth organisations in Australia. No matter what issue their ‘specialty’ issue is, climate change affects our entire generation in every area – health, social justice, poverty and development, economy, and environment.

This is a call-out to youth organisations, and organisations working with youth, to come together to form the most exciting project yet in the history of Australian youth and student organising: an Australian Youth Climate Coalition.

The Youth Organiser’s Summit for the Climate Coalition will be held in Melbourne, 20th-22nd November 2006. The idea is to have one or two representatives from a diverse range of youth organisations present to develop a youth statement on climate change and start creating joint action plans for change. So far, organisations we have contacted include GetUp!.org, Ethnic Communities Council of NSW, National Indigenous Youth Movement of Australia (NIYMA), Oxfam, Vision Generation, Vibewire.net, The Oaktree Foundation, Engineers Without Borders (EWB), the United Nations Youth Association (UNYA), Australian Student Environment Network (ASEN), OzGreen, YAPA, local Youth Councils throughout Australia, and many more.