Recently, Crs. Greenshields, Wells and I took part in the first of a three-unit module “Governing in a Climate Emergency” organised by Climate Emergency Australia. This was a free invitation to local government leaders across our nation and Mitcham was the only SA Council to accept. Should this pilot prove successful, then it will be rolled out as training for any Mayor, Councillor or Executive staff member across Australia.

The homework reading was grim and despairing. Certainly, the rate of climate change is being underestimated by our leaders, the media and society at large, but not by scientists. It appears certain pegging temperature rises by 2C is no longer achievable if we continue with the inadequate measures to date.

After my initial despondency, joining the discussion with others helped reboot my determination to do whatever I can, as a community leader, to reinforce this issue as Council’s most important consideration in all decision-making. I was inspired by many attendees, especially by the facilitator, Cr. Trent McCarthy. In 2016, on his daughter’s sixth birthday, Trent successfully brought a motion to Darebin Council to declare a climate emergency. It was the first government jurisdiction in the world to do so. Many such bodies have followed - across Australia and the world - including Mitcham Council, our SA Government, and the United Nations.

To quote UN Secretary-General Guterres, “The facts about climate change must not inspire despair but action. We can still stop the worst. But to do so, we must turn burning heat into burning ambition. And accelerate climate action – now”.

In the module, councils were urged to act inwardly and outwardly. The first involves making decisions through the lens of climate change, aligning all decision-making with the relevance and impact to mitigate climate change impacts. Outwardly, councils need to engage upwardly to lobby other tiers of government, sideways to collaborate and share with other councils, and downwards to partnering with their communities and stakeholder groups. While Mitcham is already involved in many aspects of these approaches, we can, and must, do more.

Currently, we are assessing our suite of budget bids against best alignment with Council’s four strategic themes of 2.1 Climate Change Mitigation and Resilience; 2.3 Natural Environment; 3.1 Placemaking; and 4.1 Good Governance. Personally, I now think 2.1 stands head and shoulders above the others. If Council doesn’t heavily favour spending money on measures to mitigate the effects of climate change, then our natural environment and places will be markedly diminished from how they are now. It is good governance, in my view, to elevate work on tackling climate change to our highest priority.

When COVID struck, all levels of government treated it as an emergency and took unprecedented measures such as closing state and national borders, making mask wearing obligatory, and penalising those who refused to vaccinate. Though the effects of climate change are less obvious, the overall impact is likely to be much more long term and devastating than a world-wide pandemic. We need to act.

This article may contain personal views or opinions held by individual Council Members, and may not necessarily represent the formal position of the Council