Our vision is to be Australia’s first inner city zero emissions community, through a transition that is fast, fair and fun.
We are inclusive and democratic, community led, positive and focused on what works.
Hello, Warimi, and welcome to our April newsletter. For all the parents out there, we hope you had a great time over the school holidays and had the opportunity to get out and about with family and friends.
What’s been happening
This weekend several Newtown Climate members made the trek over to Marrickville Library for Climate at the Library, organised by the local branch of Parents for Climate. We heard from three Inner West Councillors followed by a lively Q&A, and it was great to connect with so many others in our local area who are passionate about climate action and ensuring a better future for their kids. Most of the questions were about things that Inner West Council could do, or could do more quickly, to reduce emissions within our local community. There was a clear desire in the room for council to move more quickly on things like active transport, rooftop solar, and moving away from gas.
An article about Newtown Climate made it into the online edition of the local 2042 magazine! Check it out here. Thanks to our volunteer Amanda for scoping out the local media and helping to get us on their radar.
We’re still working to bring the educational program Speaking for the Planet to Inner West schools, along with some of our neighbouring inner west climate groups. We’ve got some very interested local stakeholders and are trying to find a few thousand dollars of funding for the program resources.
Upcoming events
There are a lot of upcoming events and opportunities to get involved with climate action in and around Newtown.
We’re currently in the middle of 12 days of national climate action as part of the Rise Up campaign, which calls on the federal government to finally bring an end to new coal and gas approvals. As part of the 12 days of action the Rise Up Sydney event will be held at Kirribilli House from 10-12 am on Wednesday 8 May.
From 13-19 May there will be around a hundred climate-themed events all across Sydney as part of Climate Action Week Sydney. Check out the program here.
Walanbaa Ngiiyani | Stronger Together is a new 35 minute film exploring the impacts of coal and gas extraction on communities around Australia and the Pacific. The film’s Sydney Premiere is at Dendy Newtown at 7pm on Tuesday 21 May, followed by a panel discussion. Click here for tickets.
Lock the Gate is a national grassroots organisation made up of over 120,000 supporters and almost 200 local groups who are concerned about risky coal mining, coal seam gas and fracking. Lock the Gate is organising a tour of coal mines in the Hunter Valley on 20-21 June, to give people who are interested in climate action to see the coal industry up close and learn about some proposed coal expansions. RSVP here by 8 May or contact angela@lockthegate.org.au.
Our friends at Climate Action Burwood Canada Bay are organising a Smart Energy Expo on Sunday 23 June at MLC in Burwood. We’ll be sharing a stall with other local climate groups so please reply to this email if you’re available and would like to help out!
Finally,1 Million Women, a global organisation of women committed to climate action, is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary with a Festival of Solutions at Carriageworks from 10am on Sunday 29 June. Come along to be inspired by slow fashion icons, world leaders, zero wasters, women from the front line of climate change, superstar musicians and a cast of experts. There event will also feature a Solutions Marketplace with over 40 stalls bursting with ideas for living a life that’s lighter on the planet. Get your tickets here.
Photo of the month
A great turnout at Marrickville Library for Parents for Climate’s Climate in the Library event. Thanks to all the Newtown Climate members and supporters that came along to support another local climate organisation and keep pushing our elected representatives to do all they can to reduce emissions as fast as possible.
For more photos of cool climate-related things in and around Newtown, be sure to follow our Instagram!
Membership news
We’re coming up to the end of our membership year on 30 June. Our committee has agreed that anyone who signs up for a membership between January and June 2024 will have their membership rolled over into the 2024/25 financial year – so you’ll be a member until June 2025. So if you aren’t yet a member of Newtown Climate and would like to support us please consider signing up.
Memberships start at $5 and for a local community group like ours, every member – and every membership fee – really does count.
If you’re an existing member with a membership expiring on 30 June we’ll write to you in the next month and ask you to extend your membership into 2024/25. As always, thanks to all our members for providing the support (financial and otherwise) that makes our work possible.
More opportunities to get involved
We have plenty of ideas that we can take forward when we have a few more volunteers to help us out. If that’s you please send us an email, come along to one of our Sunday morning coffee meetings (see below) or join our Whatsapp group. We love working with locals to take forward their ideas for local climate action, so if you see any good opportunities to accelerate local decarbonisation just let us know!
We mainly communicate through a WhatsApp group. Reply to this email if you’d like to be added to it. We also meet most Sunday mornings at Ariana’s Place on King Street. All welcome, but please email us (or message the WhatsApp group) in advance to make sure we’ll be there!
And as ever, a reminder that our website has a bunch of handy guides, articles and links that you might want to read or share with your friends. Let us know if you come across any excellent resources that you think we should add, or if there are questions you’d like us to answer.
That’s all for now! So, Yanu in Dharug language. Stay warm!