In The Sustainable Hour on 11 March 2020, Geelong Mayor Stephanie Asher is back to continue our conversation of November last year about leadership and how best to bring both Council staff, the business-owners and rate payers together to help solve complex and collective problems in our community such as the current recycling crisis and the climate emergency.

On 25 February 2020, City of Greater Geelong Council joined 1,400 local governments that have declared a climate emergency after a unanimous vote in the city council chamber. We played excerpts from the meeting back then, and today we listen to Geelong Councillor Jim Mason‘s speech as he was seconding the motion for the declaration and for Council to approve a new Sustainability Framework.

We hear Darebin Councillor Trent McCarthy speaking at the National Climate Emergency Summit in Melbourne in February about the newly formed council-network Climate Emergency Australia.

Youth reporter Ben Pocock delivers his Radio Report no 5 about how to create a climate council at your school.

On the occasion of the National Women’s Week, The Sustainable Hour takes a look at gender, power and climate. Starting with a statement by Julian Cribb in ABC’s Q&A, the excerpts of speeches included in our “introductionary audio-collage” are from the independent member of the Australian Parliament Zali Steggall, Sydney’s mayor Clover Moore, New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern, Finland’s prime minister Sanna Marin, Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen, Extinction Rebellion co-founder Gail Bradbrook from the United Kingdom, Christiana Figueres, one of United Nations architects behind the 2015 Paris Agreement, who was interviewed in ABC The Drum on Monday this week – and two excerpts from Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg’s ‘Averting a Climate Apocalypse’ speech at Davos in January.

We also hear a comment about macho climate denial by Jane Caro, who moderated a session at the National Climate Emergency Summit in February, from New York Times’ deputy editor Rebecca Blumenstein opening Greta’s Davos-session, and from American senator Alexandra Octavio-Cortez.

The song we play is Julia Stone‘s versio...