Hello, Warimi, and welcome to our June newsletter. It’s a big month for organisations like ours as we enter a new financial year – stay tuned for details of our AGM and if you’re a Newtown Climate member keep an eye out for an email asking you to renew your membership. If you’re not yet a member please consider becoming one!
While it’s been a cold June in Sydney, let’s not forget communities in the northern hemisphere who are again experiencing blistering heat this summer. It is important we continue to advocate for a fast, fair and fun transition to zero emissions, as we know that warming will continue over the coming decades even if we do all we can to reduce emissions now.
A particular welcome to our new members who have joined us this month.
What’s been happening
Newtown Climate member Amanda joined members of Climate Change Balmain Rozelle and the Annandale North Public School to see Kids 4 the Climate in action at Lakemba Public School. Kids 4 the Climate is an educational program that we’ve been working with other local climate groups to bring to the Inner West. It was fabulous to see students from four local primary schools present thoughtful and mature solutions-based responses to climate change through a wide range of media: prepared and impromptu speeches, visual arts, videos, design and more. If you are a parent, carer or teacher and would like to help facilitate this program in your local school please get in touch with us at hello@newtownclimate.org or just reply to this email!
Last weekend climate solutions came to Newtown’s doorstep with the 1 Million Women Festival of Solutions at Carriageworks. Several Newtown Climate members attended this wonderful event that focused on positive change to respond to climate change and restore our connection with Mother Earth. We heard from speakers including Gina Chick, Craig Reucassel and Clover Moore, while awesome performances from Jess Hitchcock, Wendy Matthews and John Butler brough a positive and exciting energy to the event. Other highlights included a presentation on recycled, reused and reimagined fashion, and a wide range of range of stalls showcasing a range of climate solutions: everything from rooftop solar and electric cars to compostable clothing, climate-friendly toys and cosmetics.
Several Newtown Climate members also attended the Smart Energy Expo hosted by Climate Change Balmain Rozelle at MLC Burwood. We were inspired by the talks, stalls and demonstrations, and in awe of the amount of work that went into organising the event from members of CCBR and other groups like the Australian Electric Vehicle Association. It’s always great to see the solutions to climate change – many of which exist today – up close and personal in our own communities. We brought home some stickers and fact sheets from Solar Citizens and Rewiring Australia so let us know if you’d like some!
Upcoming events and activities
Inner West Council has released the proposed locations of 136 new public chargers which will be installed through a partnership with the NSW Government and EV charging providers over the coming year. We’ll be preparing a submission so please let us know if there are any locations you particularly like or dislike, or if there are locations you’d like to see included that haven’t made the list. You can also make your own submission until 11 August.
Craig Reucassel is hosting an event called the Big Carbon Rethink as part of UTS’s Global Game Changers series. It’s a free event exploring new and innovative climate solutions and imagining a world in which the products we’re surrounded with are all part of the solution to climate change. Tickets available here.
Stay tuned for details of our 2024 AGM. We’d love to make this a social event at a local business that supports climate action, so if you have any ideas for a good venue just let us know!
Photo of the month
[please follow the link below as we are not allowed to use images from the Sydney Morning Herald]
Newtown Climate member Eddy was interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald for a story about public electric vehicle charging. Eddy and his partner Grace (also a Newtown Climate member) bought their EV in March this year after an EV charger was installed in Newtown as part of a City of Sydney pilot program. They’re looking forward to the roll-out of 136 new chargers in the Inner West over the coming year!
For more photos of cool climate-related things in and around Newtown be sure to follow our Instagram!
Membership news
Our membership year ended on 30 June, with new memberships from 1 January 2024 rolling over into the new financial year.
If you’re a current member you will have received an email asking you to renew your membership for 2024-25. If you didn’t please let us know!
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.
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!