Download Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives

Community Climate
Petition to the
House of Representatives
Community Climate Petition to the
House of Representatives
A guide to running a powerful electorate-based petition as part of coordinated national action
on climate change.
XX 1 Petition Across 150 Electorates.
XX 150 Days of Action for
XX 1 Goal: Stronger Action on Climate Change
Contents
What is this petition about?.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .3
Simple handover meeting.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . 13
Petition text .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .3
Public handover event.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Why does it matter?.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .4
Three months before the event:.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Laudato Si.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
One month before the event: .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Why now?.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
One week before the event: .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Will it make a difference? .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The day before the event: .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . 14
How will the petition work?.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .7
At the event: .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Community Climate Petition.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
After the event: .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
What happens to the petition in Parliament?.. .. .. .. .9
What Support Will I Receive?.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Who is involved? .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .9
More resources .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
How to run the petition.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
For PPs and POs.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Micah Australia is a coalition of churches and Christian organisations raising
a powerful voice for justice and a world free from poverty.
Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
What is this petition about?
This petition calls on the Australian Government to take stronger action to reduce our emissions, transition
away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy, and support our poorest and most vulnerable
neighbours as they face the increasing impacts of climate change.
Petition text
To the Honourable Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives
This petition of concerned people of the electorate of [electorate name], draws to the attention of the
House the severe and urgent threat that climate change poses to the health, well-being and security of all
people around the world, particularly our poorest and most vulnerable neighbours.
We remind the House that Australia’s greenhouse emissions are the highest per person among wealthy
nations while our emissions reduction targets are among the weakest.
We therefore ask the House to do all in its power to protect communities in Australia and our region from
the harmful impacts of climate change – such as more severe heat, extreme and unpredictable weather and
rising seas – by:
XX committing to deeper and more urgent reductions of our greenhouse emissions;
XX developing a plan to ensure Australia achieves zero net greenhouse emissions well before 2050, and
supporting families and communities affected by the transition towards renewable energy and more
sustainable land use;
XX providing additional assistance to help our poorest neighbours adapt to the harmful impacts of
climate change.
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Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
Why does it matter?
Climate change is already hurting vulnerable communities and making hard lives harder around the world,
disproportionately affecting poor and marginalised communities. Climate change is hurting people directly
through extreme weather events, disrupted rainfall patterns, changed pathways for pests and diseases, the
melting of glaciers and sea level rise. Australia is the developed country most vulnerable to climate change,
vulnerable to impacts such as heatwaves, droughts, greater risk of bushfires, extreme weather, and sea level
rise. Climate change also adds to stresses of poverty, inequality and conflict.
Responding to climate change is simply part of what it means to be followers of Christ in the 21st century.
It’s part of what it means to practice a preferential option for the poor and act in solidarity with our
vulnerable neighbours in the global village. It’s part of what it means to love and honour God as we care for
our common home.
To protect creation, to protect every man and every woman, to look upon
them with tenderness and love, is to open up a horizon of hope; it is to let
a shaft of light break through the heavy clouds; it is to bring the warmth of
hope!
Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ [53]
Our greenhouse gas emissions have already warmed the world by more than 1°C since the end of the 19th
century. 2016 was by far the hottest year ever recorded and each month more heat and extreme weather
records are broken. Yet because of emissions from our transport & energy, mining & industry, agriculture &
deforestation, we continue to pump around 37 billion tonnes of heat-trapping gases (CO2 equivalent) into
the atmosphere each year.
This increased heat and the disruption it causes to the Earth’s climate has terrible human consequences.
In 2015 alone, before the extra impact of 2016’s record-breaking temperatures, heat waves in India and
Pakistan in May and June 2015 resulted in more than 3,000 deaths. Droughts from South America through
the Pacific to Africa affected at least 20 million people. Cyclone Pam, likely the strongest cyclone ever
recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, smashed into Vanuatu with wind speeds of up to 320 km per hour,
rendering 75,000 people homeless and destroying up to 90% of Vanuatu’s food crops. In Australia, too,
record ocean temperatures damaged 93% of the Great Barrier Reef (some of which will never recover) and
massive bushfires in early 2016 destroyed huge swathes of Tasmania’s Central Plateau World Heritage Area.
Hungry for Justice, Thirsty for Change: Climate change in the Pacific
Research by Caritas in 2016 showed that the impacts of climate
change in the Pacific are more pervasive than ever. Most
significantly, there were widespread food and water shortages
in 2015-16 due to climate change, resulting in hardship, illness,
malnutrition and even death in the most vulnerable communities.
Communities showed us how land is being lost to rising seas.
Water sources are becoming undrinkable and food crops are
failing due to saltwater contamination and extreme weather
events intensified by climate change.
Pacific communities are fighting for their way of life with
resourcefulness and courage. But they need us to act in solidarity.
More info: www.caritas.org.au/hungryforjustice
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Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
Laudato Si’: a dialogue with all people about our common home
In 2015, Pope Francis released an Encyclical (a Papal letter) called Laudato Si’: On the Care of our Common
Home. It is addressed to every person on the planet.
In Laudato Si’, climate change is addressed as a human rights issue and global inequlity is a central theme.
Pope Francis highlighs the ‘intimate relationship between the poor and the fragility of the planet’.
A true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate
questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry
of the earth and the cry of the poor. [para. 49]
The world’s poor are bearing the most severe consequences of climate change despite having done the
least to cause it.
Pope Francis calls for a revolution of our hearts and minds, for a transformation of our societies
and individual lifestyles, to live in harmony with God’s creation. He challenges ‘the modern myth
of unlimited material progress. He asks us to redefine our notion of progress and rethink our
current public values which put economic growth before our common home and the needs of the
most vulnerable.
Our goal is .. to become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is happening to our
world into our personal suffering and thus to discover what each of us can do
about it. [para. 19]
Pope Francis calls for governments to take urgent, strong action on climate change. He also emphasises the
need for citizen advocacy.
Society, through non-governmental organisations and intermediate groups, must
put pressure on governments to develop more rigorous regulations, procedures
and controls. Unless citizens control political power - national, regional and
municipal - it will not be possible to control damage to the environment. [para. 179]
Pope Francis recognises the special importance of placing Indigenous communities at the heart of any
approach to achieving environmental and social justice.
[Indigneous communities] should be the principal diaologue partners, especially
when large projects affecting their land are proposed. For them, land is not a
commodity but rather a gift from God and from their ancestors. [para. 146]
Finally, Laudato Si’ has many messages of hope:
No system can completely suppress our openness to what is good, true and beautiful,
or our God-given ability to respond to his grace at work deep in our hearts. I appeal
to everyone throughout the world not to forget this dignity which is ours. No one has
the right to take it from us. [para. 205]
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For a more detailed exploration of Laudato Si’, see our Climate Justice Action Kit
at www.caritas.org.au/climate/resources
Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
Why now?
Action to tackle climate change is at a crossroads – both globally and in Australia.
Globally, the Paris Agreement, which entered into force on 4 November 2016, commits all nations to work
together to keep warming well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to work to limit the increase to
1.5°C. This means that we will need rapid reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases, to achieve zero net
emissions (a balance between what we emit and what might be captured through reforestation and other
processes) and then negative net emissions as a matter of urgency.
In Australia, the Government will
undertake two reviews in the next two
years to assess the effectiveness of its own
policies to tackle climate change.
In June 2017, the Australian Government
will launch a review into its Emissions
Reduction Fund, the scheme that pays
polluters to cut some of their greenhouse
gas emissions. In 2018, the Australian
Government must also review Australia’s
national emissions reduction targets
in order to take stronger targets and
policies to the 2020 international climate
negotiations.
15 of the 16 hottest years ever recorded have occurred since 2001
Source: www.ncdc.noaa.gov
However, there are huge gaps between what we need to do, what we have pledged to do, and what we are
actually doing. We need to speak out now in order to close those gaps.
-25%
Japan
-27%
-30%
New Zealand
-30%
Canada
-37%
EU
-37%
USA
-45%
Norway
-45%
Germany
-51%
Switzerland
-61%
-70%
-60%
Wealthy nations have committed to reduce
their greenhouse gas emissions. This graph
shows how much each country has
pledged to reduce their emissions by 2030,
compared to 2005. Australia’s targets are
weaker than all except Japan, where
emissions-free nuclear power was taken
offline in the wake of the Fukushima
disaster.
Australia
UK
-50%
-40%
-30%
-20%
-10%
0%
Australia’s emissions reduction targets are weaker than virtually every other wealthy nation
Source: climatechangeauthority.gov.au
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Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
Will it make a difference?
A petition to the Parliament is the most direct way you can ask the Parliament to take action.
If our Parliament receives many petitions on climate from local communities across the country, our
politicians will better understand the breadth and depth of support for stronger action to reduce emissions
and support vulnerable communities in our region.
One petition in one electorate might be possible to ignore. Any number of email petitions can be sent
straight to trash.
But one hundred-and-fifty old-school, pen-and-paper petitions, gathered by churches, faith communities,
schools, businesses and community groups across all of Australia’s 150 electorates is hard to ignore. By
coordinating our efforts, handing the petitions to MPs at one key moment, and having our requests heard
by Parliament, we will make it impossible to ignore.
The petition will build a strong sense of public pressure and momentum at a time when the Government is
assessing whether our emissions reduction targets are an adequate contribution to global efforts to tackle
climate change and whether our climate policies are reducing emissions far and fast enough. (Hint: they’re
not. Not by a long shot.)
How will the petition work?
From January through to July 2017, churches, faith communities, schools, businesses and other community
groups will gather petitions in their local electorate. One person will act as a Principal Petitioner for each
electorate.
On Earth Day (April 22) we will officially launch the Community Climate Petition. This coincides with the
Government’s review of its “Emissions Reduction Fund” climate policies.
At the end of June, all groups will return the signatures they have collected to the Principal Petitioner for
their electorate.
Principal Petitioners will coordinate with Petition Organisers in their electorate to hand the petition over to
their MP in July and call on him or her to present it in Parliament.
In November, as the international climate conference begins to meet, we will hold a coordinated media
event to highlight public support for stronger action to tackle climate change.
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Community
Climate Petition
A grassroots petition to achieve influence at scale
The key to getting
petition scale:
Local Community
Organising
Each electorate needs a Principal
Petitioner and lots of Petition
Organisers
caritas.org.au/climate-petition
Churches, schools, community
groups gather petition signatures
until mid 2017, returning them
to the
Principal Petitioner
Groups present their petition in
a series of coordinated handover
events to every Member of
Parliament in each of Australia’s
150 electorates
Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
What happens to the petition in Parliament?
If your MP is presenting your petition personally, he or she will have the opportunity to make a statement,
thereby increasing awareness about the need for climate action. If your MP is not involved, petitions are
usually presented on Mondays by the Chair of the Petitions Committee who announces the subject of the
petition and the number of signatories but contributes no discussion of the petition’s subject matter.
The full terms of the petition will be printed in the Hansard (the parliamentary record) for that day and
they will also be published on the Petitions Committee’s webpage. The Committee may forward the terms
of the petition to the relevant Minister, in which case the Minister is expected to respond within 90 days.
Responses to petitions are announced in the House, printed in Hansard and published on the Committee’s
webpage. The Principal Petitioner will also be advised.
Who is involved?
Micah Australia – a coalition of Christian aid and development organisations and church groups – is
coordinating the petition.
We want this to be a tool to empower Christians to gather signatures in their churches, places of work or
study and in the wider community.
To make the petition as powerful as possible, we also want it be something that any individual or group
from any faith background (or no faith at all) can sign and also organise and gather signatures for. For that
reason, while it’s a petition launched and coordinated by Christians, it’s not a petition for Christians alone.
For the Community Climate Petition to be influential, it will need to demonstrate wide, deep and diverse
support in each of our electorates.
Caritas Australia is one of the organisations helping to coordinate the petition. For information about who
else is involved, visit micahaustralia.org/climate-petition
The world’s poor, though least responsible for climate change, are most
vulnerable and already suffering its impact... When we mistreat nature,
we also mistreat human beings.
Pope Francis
If we believe that we are no more than consumers, then we shall seek
fulfilment in consuming the whole earth, but if we believe we are made in
the image of God, we shall act with care and compassion.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholemew
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Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
How to run the petition
1.Play Your Part
Decide whether you want to be the Principal Petitioner for your electorate or Petition Organiser.
The Principal Petitioner is the first named person on the petition and will coordinate the handover of the
petition to your electorate’s MP.
A Petition Organiser is any other person who will gather signatures and help to promote the petition in
their groups and networks and the wider community.
Principal Petitioners will also do the work of a Petition Organiser – gathering signatures and promoting the
petition – but have a few specific responsibilities regarding the coordination of the petition.
To find out more about these roles or to register your interest in being either a Principal Petitioner or a
Petition Organiser: www.caritas.org.au/climate-petition
If You Are The Principal Petitioner For Your Electorate
XX Petitions to the House must have a ‘Principal Petitioner’ - someone who will be the contact person
for any correspondence with the House of Representatives Petition Committee about the petition.
Principal Petitioners provide their full name and contact details on the first page of the petition.
These details are for the use of the Petition Committee only and will not be made public.
XX Principal Petitioners receive the other petition signatures gathered across the electorate.
XX Principal Petitioners coordinate the handover of the petition to your electorate’s MP. This could be
a simple handover meeting or a larger public handover event. There is more detail about these
handover events below.
XX Principal Petitioners also act as Petition Organisers to gather signatures and promote the petition.
If You Are a Petition Organiser
XX You will gather signatures among your groups and networks and the wider community.
XX You will promote the petition through your networks and through social and local media.
XX You will return all completed petition forms by the dates indicated in the schedule below.
XX You may join the meeting or event to hand over the petition to your Member of Parliament.
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Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
2.Gather signatures
Plan how you will gather signatures. The simplest way is to schedule key moments where you will gather
signatures into your calendar. Plan the best way to do this by asking a few questions:
XX Which groups (school, church, community, workplace, other) are you part of where you could invite
people to sign the petition?
XX Will you have an opportunity to make a short presentation to explain the petition and ask for
signatures and who do you need to ask in order to do this?
XX What other groups are you in contact with who you could invite to promote the petition (such as
local businesses, community groups, and local events or festivals)? When and how will you get in
touch with these groups?
XX Will you gather signatures in public?
To gather petitions in a public place, you may need appropriate permissions.
Individuals or small groups of people approaching people in a public place to request signatures do not
require permission.
However, setting up a stall or booth to gather signatures requires permission from:
XX Council if in a public area or civic space (e.g. library, square or park)
XX Shopping centre management if in a mall or shopping centre
XX Event organisers if at a community festival or event
Print copies of the petition to gather signatures. Every signature must be handwritten on a page showing
the request of the petition at the top. Signatures on the blank reverse side of such a page are not accepted.
3.Promote the petition
XX Use social media to share the fact that your group is gathering signatures for this petition:
XX Tag @micahaustralia to let us know you’re gathering signatures
XX Use hashtags to amplify your voice on social media [#CommunityClimatePetition]
XX Let your local media know that your groups is gathering signatures for this petition.
XX Find more resources to share and promote the petition at micahaustralia.org/climate-petition
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Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
4.Return completed petitions
To coordinate handover events, we need to ensure that signatures are collated and sent to the Principal
Petitioner with enough time for them to organise a handover meeting with your Member of Parliament.
In order to ensure that your group’s signatures are collated and presented along with other signatures in
the same electorate, post all signatures to:
Micah Australia
413/410 Elizabeth St
Surry Hills
NSW 2010
by 30 June 2017.
We will collate numbers of signatories on all petitions around the country to use solely for the purpose of
demonstrating the strength of support for climate action across the Australian community. We will not
record any other details and will not use them to contact petitioners.
Bring your ‘Hearts 4 Climate’
‘Hearts 4 Climate’ is a fun and creative activity you can add to your petition promotions to deepen and
broaden community engagement. It’s particularly effective for engaging younger school students who may
not sign the petition, and to add a beautifully visual element to your media engagement and MP handover
event. See www.caritas.org.au/climate/hearts-4-climate for an easy ‘how to’ toolkit.
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Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
5.Organise a handover event (Principal Petitioner)
Simple handover meeting
Confirm with other groups who have gathered petitions in your electorate whether they are interested and
able to send a representative to the meeting.
Contact the MPs office and request a meeting with the MP to present the petition. This meeting could take
place at the MP’s office or at another venue. You can find out who your MP is and his/her contact details via
the Australian Electoral Commission: electorate.aec.gov.au
Try to find a suitable date for the meeting in August or September. However, if the MP is not available,
request a staff member for the meeting.
At the meeting, briefly explain the petition and outline why your community feels strongly about climate
change and what you would like the Parliament to do. Ask your federal MP or his/her representative to
present your petition to Parliament.
Public handover event
This is more complicated and requires more planning, but if done well can have a very powerful impact on
the MP and the wider community.
Three months before the event:
1. Choose and book a venue (such as location outside the MP’s office, church, school,
community hall, or park) at an appropriate time on your electorate’s assigned handover
date.
When choosing your venue you will need to consider the following:
XX Size of expected group
XX Photo opportunity – does your location have an area appropriate for your group photo?
XX Suitability for all types of weather
2. Register your event and spread the word
If haven’t already done so, please contact the Micah staff team to register your event on (02) 8317 5080 or
email [email protected]. Micah staff and other participating organisations can also provide further
assistance in your event planning if required.
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Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
3. Plan your gathering:
XX Invite any speakers – for example local community leaders concerned about climate change
XX Invite your Federal MP
XX Invite all groups who have gathered signatures to bring people to the handover event. Having
people come in shared colours, uniforms and/or with banners can create a powerful visual effect.
XX Plan a creative action and/or photo opportunity – for example, ‘Hearts 4 Climate’ (see page 12) or
people forming the shape of a heart to symbolise love for creation and neighbour and concern about
climate change.
One month before the event:
XX Recruit and brief support volunteers for the event. Depending on your event, you may need one or
more marshals to help direct people. One marshal per 50 participants is a good ratio to aim for. You
may also need an appropriately-trained first-aid volunteer. Make sure that all volunteers have been
briefed about the petition aims, and given a simple script to follow when interacting with the public.
XX Draft a run-sheet for your event with timeframes and durations for each part of your event.
XX Download a simple event planning tool from micahaustralia.org/climate-petition
One week before the event:
XX Send out a media alert to local newspaper and radio. Use the draft media alert in this kit as a
template, and edit it to include the specific details of your event.
XX Give the contacts for key churches, schools and groups a friendly reminder about the event, and
confirm how many people they will bring to the event.
XX Prepare an event contact list with names and mobile numbers of key organisers, marshals, and firstaid volunteers.
The day before the event:
XX Contact local newspaper and radio stations to confirm that they will attend your event. If necessary,
send the media alert again.
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Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
At the event:
XX Make any necessary safety announcements, including road- safety and sun-protection. Ensure that
marshals and first-aid volunteers are clearly identified.
XX Encourage participants to have fun – perhaps dress up, use banners, perform chants or songs.
XX At the start of the gathering, include an acknowledgement of country using something like the
following words, “I would like to acknowledge that this meeting is being held on the traditional lands
of the (appropriate group) people, and pay my respect to elders both past and present.” Contact the
local council or Aboriginal Land Council if you aren’t sure who the traditional owners of the land are.
XX Have one or more speakers make short presentations about why they are concerned about climate
change and what they want the Government to do.
XX Hand over the petition to the MP and ask him/her to have the Petition read into Hansard (the record
of proceedings in Parliament) and presented to the House of Representatives Petitions Committee.
XX Take lots of high-resolution photos. Action shots and close-ups of people are best.
Email these to your MP and tag them on social media.
After the event:
XX Send your media release (see below), along with one or two high-resolution photos, to the local
newspaper if they were not able to send a journalist and photographer. It is quite possible that they
will publish your media release as written – so make sure it says exactly what you want it to say.
XX Tell us how it went. Send photos, any media coverage, and a short blurb to
[email protected]
XX If your MP won’t receive the petition or won’t present it in Parliament, mail your petition to:
XX House of Representatives
Standing Committee on Petitions
PO Box 6021
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
And make sure to let your local media know that your MP chose not to receive your petition.
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Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
What Support Will I Receive?
Staff and volunteers from Micah Australia and other involved organisations will act as coaches and mentors
for Principal Petitioners and Petition Organisers, providing additional resources and direct support through
webinars (starting in March), personal meetings and mentor support.
SAMPLE MEDIA ALERT/INVITATION
Community Climate Petition Event in [Place or Group Name]
Local churches/schools/groups to present Grassroots Climate Petition at:
[location, time and date of event].
Event details:
XX Photo opportunity
XX Creative action/performers (if any)
XX Names of significant people attending (e.g. MP, mayor, community leaders)
The community petition in [name of electorate] is one of 150 events being organised by groups in every
electorate across the country and presented to every Member of Parliament throughout August and
September.
For media enquiries or to RSVP, please contact [insert name and mobile phone number of the event’s
organiser or media contact person here].
SAMPLE POST-EVENT MEDIA RELEASE
Community Climate Petition Action
Local groups have urged [name of Federal MP] to support stronger action on climate change.
Churches, faith groups, business, schools, community groups and others have presented a community
petition to [name of Federal MP], calling on the Federal Parliament to support deeper and more urgent
reductions to Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and to increase support for vulnerable communities
affected by climate change.
Event organiser, [name], said, “This event and the community petition highlights the deep concern that so
(continued next page)
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Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
many people feel about climate change. The world is taking action to reduce reliance on coal, oil and gas
and shift towards clean energy, yet in Australia there is still at the huge gap between what we need to do to
respond to climate change and how little we actually are doing.”
Event participant, [name], said, “I thought it was important to lend our voice to this community climate
petition because we all have to work together to stop climate change getting worse and help communities
affected by its impact.”
2016 was the hottest year ever recorded, beating even 2015’s extreme heat. Global temperatures are now
more than 1°C hotter than at the end of the 19th Century. Because of global warming and climate change,
our neighbours in the Pacific are threatened by more intense cyclones and rising sea levels. Record heat in
our oceans led to 93% of the Great Barrier Reef being damaged by bleaching and Tasmania’s World Heritage
Area was devastated by unprecedented bushfires in just the last year.
Groups involved in gathering signatures for the petition include:
XX [list groups]
[Name of MP] has promised to present the petition and call for stronger action from the Australian
Parliament.
More climate justice resources for schools and parishes
Climate Justice Action Kits
These kits provide more information on:
Climate justice
Laudato Si’
Voices at the frontlines of climate change:
stories from our partner communities
P
rayers and reflections
‘Hearts 4 Climate’ activity
Holding a climate justice event
P
ractical actions for sustainability
Other classroom activities for schools
and more ...
You can download them at
www.caritas.org.au/climate/resources
For schools
For parishes
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Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
Information for
Principal Petitioners and
Petition Organisers
Thank you!
Australia and the world are at a crossroads for tackling climate change. The Earth is warming
more rapidly that at any time in human history. 16 of the 17 hottest years ever recorded have
occurred in the 21st century. We see that more severe heat, sea level rise, disrupted climate
patterns and extreme weather are affecting us all, and especially the poorest and most
marginalised communities.
Yet, despite this, Australia’s emissions continue to increase and our politicians, energy, and
transport remain stubbornly in thrall to heavily polluting fossil fuel industries.
In a warming world, where our emissions have a direct impact on our neighbours, responding
to climate change is part of what it means to be Jesus’ disciples. It’s part of what it means to love
and stand with our vulnerable neighbours in the global village. It’s part of what it means to love
and honour God as we care for God’s creation.
We are grateful that you have agreed to raise your voice to call for a rapid reduction in Australia’s
greenhouse gas emissions and a rapid and fair transition away from fossil fuels and towards zero
net emissions in our energy, transport, industries and farming. Thank you also for standing with,
and speaking for, the families and communities being harmed by climate change in our region.
We hope and pray that with your help, we can make the Community Climate Petition the largest,
coordinated multi-electorate petition in Australia’s history and help Australia’s politicians see
that they need to take more urgent action for climate justice.
Please take a moment to read and understand the roles of Principal Petitioners and Petition
Organisers as described in the next two pages.
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Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
For Principal Petitioners
My Commitment
As a Principal Petitioner for the Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives, I:
1) Agree that my name and contact details will be provided on the cover page of the petition to
the House of Representatives to comply with the rules on petitions to Parliament.
2) Agree that my name and contact details can be shared with the organisations involved in
coordinating the Community Climate Petition for support & coordination purposes (and that
these details will not be shared or used for any other purpose by these organisations)
3) Agree that my name and contact details can be shared with Petition Organisers in my
electorate, to facilitate coordination of our efforts and increase our effectiveness.
4) Agree that I will treat all people involved with the petition with respect and will not share
or make use of names and contact details of any Petition Organiser except for support and
coordination purposes and will not share or make use of the names and details of signatories.
5) Commit to participating in training and coordination calls, unless otherwise prevented.
6) Commit to praying for the success of this petition, if prayer is part of my spiritual tradition.
7) Commit to peacefully gathering signatures and promoting the petition as I am able.
8) Commit to working with Petition Organisers in my electorate to present the petition to our
Member of Parliament and to engage the public and media as I am able.
Our Commitment To You
As organisations involved in coordinating the Community Climate Petition, we will:
1) Protect the privacy of your personal details, sharing and using them only for the purposes
described above.
2) Communicate regularly with you about the progress of the petition and provide support,
training and coaching to you in your role as Principal Petitioner.
3) Provide platforms for you to share your insights and experiences so that we can learn and
adapt to be as effective as possible.
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Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives
For Petitioner Organisers
My Commitment
As a Petition Organiser for the Community Climate Petition to the House of Representatives, I:
1) Agree that my name and contact details can be shared with the organisations involved in
coordinating the Community Climate Petition for support & coordination purposes (and that
these details will not be shared or used for any other purpose by these organisations).
2) Agree that my name and contact details can be shared with other Petition Organisers in my
electorate, to facilitate coordination of our efforts and increase our effectiveness.
3) Agree that I will treat all people involved with the petition with respect and will not share
or make use of names and contact details of any other Petition Organiser except for support &
coordination purposes and will not share or make use of the names and details of signatories.
4) Commit to participating in training & coordination calls, unless otherwise prevented.
5) Commit to praying for the success of this petition, if prayer is part of my spiritual tradition.
6) Commit to peacefully gathering signatures and promoting the petition as I am able.
7) Commit to working with other Petition Organisers in my electorate to present the petition to
our Member of Parliament and to engage the public and media as I am able.
Our Commitment To You
As organisations involved in coordinating the Community Climate Petition, we will:
1) Protect the privacy of your personal details, sharing and using them only for the purposes
described above.
2) Communicate regularly with you about the progress of the petition and provide support,
training and coaching to you in your role as Petition Organiser.
3) Provide platforms for you to share your insights and experiences so that we can learn and
adapt to be as effective as possible.
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