Our guests in The Sustainable Hour no 309 on 15 April 2020 are:

Nerida Thompson from Neighbours United for Climate Action and Newlands Parents for Climate Action speaks about their Community Climate Action Series, which has become an online series of webinars due to the coronavirus lockdown. This group of friends and neighbours in the Newlands area in Melbourne have developed a series of workshops that are now open to everyone who wants to work at becoming more connected and resilient. Find more info about their online workshops below.

Colin Long from the Victorian Trades Hall Council is manager of Just Transitions for Workers. He tells us about an exciting new project which involves a collaboration of unions, social enterprises and green groups to create an energy provider called Cooperative Power. Their aim is to democratise and decentralise energy use.

AFL player Jasper Pittard is a defender for the North Melbourne Kangaroos. He talks about why he thinks climate-concerned elite sports people should use their privileged position and influence to talk publicly about their concerns and call for real action on climate.

Colin Mockett‘s Global Outlook report covers two areas today: The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has agreed to cut the production of oil to make up for the decrease in oil use during the Covid-19 crisis, and this could have an impact on the use of electric transport of all kinds, and secondly, a United Nations report points out that while world-wide carbon emissions have dropped during the pandemic, it is crucial that we don’t return to “business as usual” as part of the recovery period. This will have to focus on people’s and the planet’s overall wellbeing, so positive job-creating programs for the environment have to be continually put in front of our pollies now.

Mik then takes us back to the tunnel and refers to examples of groups that are standing up for a clean and green snap-back from the pandemic.

Don’t forget that next week is Earth Week, and an important local part of this is the Tree poem competition, which ends on Earth Day, Wednesday 22 April. Read more about how you can take part below. We look forward to being part of it all, and until then, we’ll do all we can to be the difference!

“It is not complicated what needs to be done. Look through the resources available. There are heaps of good things happening in this space, so the more people we can get on board the better.”~ Jasper Pittard, AFL North Melbourne Kangaroos defender

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