State member for Euroa Steph Ryan has been delivered a hard copy of The Peoples Climate Strategy at an informal café meeting in Seymour last Friday June 18th.
BEAM Mitchell Environment Group President Peter Lockyer and Committee member Ruth Yeatman chatted with Steph for an hour about the findings of the Strategy and the priorities within our Hume Region in a time of increasing climate change.
The Peoples Climate Strategy was developed during the Covid-19 lockdown last year by Friends Of the Earth’s Act-on-Climate collective through a series of zoom meetings and workshops. Over 1000 people participated from all over Victoria. The Strategy sits alongside the Victorian Climate Strategy launched in early June this year, and has a focus on local actions that fit within the State objectives. The Peoples Climate Strategy is more ambitious, to be sure, but it paints a picture of understanding for local initiatives.
Within the Hume Region, the priority concerns over the coming five years were the threat of bushfires and grass fires, then drought, extreme weather events and the pressure on our ecosystems. Agriculture is our regions biggest income stream, and the area of our greatest concern. Farmers were the priority area for action to reduce emissions in agriculture through regenerative farming, farm forestry, renewable energy income streams and emergent electric vehicles are highlighted.
There was strong agreement on the role that community batteries can play in creating local energy security, with the recent extreme weather being a primer for this measure. The future of native timber harvesting and biodiversity decline was a point of contention, as sustainable timber supplies into the future have many challenges. The parties did agree on local solutions and local chains of supply.
Steph Ryan now has her homework in perusing the Peoples Climate Strategy, being invited as a guest on 103.9FM’s EarthChat program in a forthcoming program, perhaps July 23rd.