Coal Campaign Stream

While coal has taken some hits in the climate change debate, Australia is in the midst of the biggest coal rush this country has ever witnessed and the so called economic and jobs benefits of coal mining are taken as a given by many politicians, journalists and members of the public. How do we expose this rort and demolish the mantra that a healthy Australian economy depends on coal exports?

Around Australia, people are using a variety of tactics including direct action and political lobbying to highlight the damage that the burning and export of coal is doing to our environment. This stream will bring together people interested in campaigning on coal to communicate about their activities and strategies.

Special Guest Speaker Lee Rhiannon (NSW Greens MP and mining spokesperson) will speak about how we make the coal industry enemy No 1. in climate change campaigning.

Objectives of the stream

• provide space for CAGs and individuals to share ideas and skills for anti coal campaigning across Australia.

• Identify opportunities for collaboration between existing state campaigns

Proposed Outcomes

• Shared sense of importance of coal campaigning

• Shared knowledge and awareness of other state campaigns

• Participants have a greater understanding of campaign strategy

• Ideas for local actions and tactics have been developed

• Opportunities for shared messaging and communications have been discussed and possibly identified

• National timeline of activities developed?

Session 1: Introduction and overview

Saturday 2-3.30

Introduction to the campaign Stream (5mins)

Moira Williams, Climate Action Newtown

Guest Speaker: Making the coal industry enemy No. 1 in climate change campaigns (12mins)

Lee Rhiannon Greens NSW MP and mining spokesperson

Presentations from States on current strategies and tactics (10min each)

- NSW (Max Phillips, No New Coal Strategy Working Group)

- VIC (Switch Off Hazelwood, speaker TBC)

- QLD (speaker from Six Degrees TBC)

- WA [?if you are involved in coal campaigning in WA get in touch!]

Identifying opportunities for collaboration – facilitated open discussion

Session 2: Identifying our objectives

Saturday 3.30-5

Developing a good campaign strategy (in the context of coal campaigning)

Facilitator: George Woods, Rising Tide

Session 3: Achieving our objectives

Sunday 10.30-12

Participants break into smaller groups to brainstorm tactics and plan actions (25mins)

Report backs and develop a national timeline (25mins)

Discuss any proposals to be taken to the summit plenary (40mins)

We need help to make these sessions successful. If you want get involved in organising this stream contact Moira Williams: moira.williams[a]gmail.com

 Vote Climate

The Federal election will dominate the political debate for most of the year, and there are also three state elections in the 12 months following the summit. We have an opportunity to use the election as a platform to communicate the climate movement's messages to the public, place pressure on the government to adopt better climate policies and encourage more people to get active in the climate movement.

This stream will be an opportunity to share our experiences in working on elections over the last two years, discuss and refine some common strategies, themes and messages we could use to in the lead up the elections, and share ideas about tactics for climate action groups in local electorates.

Specific objectives include: 1. define what the main themes from the major parties will be during the election
2. try to reach agreement on common strategy and messages
3. share experiences of working on elections

Outcomes: 1. identify main points of Labor, Liberal and Green policies
2. define a statement on strategy and common messages that could be used by local climate groups and state based networks over the next 6 months
3. suggest ways renewables and coal campaigning could be integrated into an election strategy
4. agree on a process for ongoing cooperation on elections

Session 1 - Saturday morning

Lessons from 2007 election
Discussion of key election themes
Discussion of election strategy

Key Questions How do we use election campaigning to grow the movement and Climate Action Groups? Are there opportunities for cooperation with other non government organisations and environment groups? Should we focus green/labor marginals or campaign in all electorates? Election outcomes vs policy outcomes. Campaigning early vs polliing booth focus.

Session 2 - Saturday afternoon

What does election campaigning look like on the ground: report on Higgins campaign and Big Switch experiences
Discuss messaging and start to refine some common platforms
Agree on common election platform - this will be taken to whole summit
Brainstorm on election tactics and concrete actions in electorates.

100% renewables

 100% renewables is an exciting new positive, solutions-focussed campaign initiated by a coalition of local climate action groups, and supported by experienced union and NGO campaigners as well as renewable energy professionals. It aims to use community organising techniques to build support for key policy demands that will unleash a clean energy revolution in Australia.

Objectives include: participating climate action groups understand the campaign strategy and basics of community organising, are excited about the campaign, are confident to communicate key campaign messages in thier community, and have new skills to get thier community on board with our 100% renewable energy vision for Australia

Outcomes:
 CAG members have a greater understanding of the campaign strategy and and have started work developing a local strategy for the campaign in thier own area.

CAG members have greater confidence about communicating the campaign and its key messages to thier community - and new tools for engaging thier local community in the campaign

CAG members have started developing ideas for the local launch of thier campaign as well as more ideas for local actions and tactics to use through out the year.  

Stream structure:
Intro to the campaign – 10mins (at beginning of each session)
Campaign strategy overview and local strategy development workshop (incl discussion on local alliance building) – 1.5 hour 

Communicating the campaign messages and engaging people through personal narrative and strategic questioning  – 1.5 hour
Planning local launches and developing national and local tactics – 1.5 hour

 Green jobs and trade unions

The trade union movement remains a key social force in Australia: a mechanism for reaching working Australians and with a strong history of involvement in movements for social change. This stream starts from the belief that strong alliances between the trade union and climate movements are crucial and will look at ways to strengthen the relationship between the two movements.

Climate emergency

A new climate action paradigm is emerging from the grass roots. The 2009 Climate Summit adopted the vision “to work together at emergency speed to restore in a just way a safe climate in time for all people, all species and all generations.” This implies major changes in what the climate movement is aiming for and the way we campaign. Already groups across the country are working for a safe climate, for action at emergency speed and for a transition decade.

 Participants in this stream will sharpen the link between the safe climate goal (the restoration of pre-industrial temperatures) and action here-and-now through building a practical ‘road map’. We will work on building national collaboration to advance the new paradigm and will develop a program for campaigning directly for the emergency restoration of a safe climate as well as improving the synergies with other climate campaigns.

Session 1: Scoping the safe climate transition (from end goal to current action)

Session 2: Assessing progress so far and identifying what still needs to be done

Session 3: Building the movement nationally to campaign for a safe climate restoration at emergency speed.