The City Of Sydney Has Officially Declared A Climate Emergency

SBS - Charlotte Lam

City of Sydney councillors have voted to declare that climate change should be treated as a national emergency.

Activists from the Extinction Rebellion, Lord Mayor Clover Moore, Councillor Jess Miller, Councillor Jess Scully and Councillor Robert Kok at Sydney Town Hall. City of Sydney

Sydney has officially declared a climate emergency, with the city's councillors voting that climate change poses a serious risk to the people of Sydney and the rest of Australia.
Lord Mayor Clover Moore asked the council Monday night to call on the Federal Government to respond urgently to the emergency, by reintroducing a price on carbon to meet the Paris Agreement emissions reduction targets.

The City of Sydney has officially declared a climate emergency. pic.twitter.com/RobatF87IK

— Clover Moore (@CloverMoore) June 24, 2019

In 2007, the City of Sydney revealed its long-term strategic plan, Sustainable Sydney 2030, in which 97 per cent of residents said they wanted strong climate action.
“We set a goal to reduce our emissions by 70 per cent by 2030, and following the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, we set a more ambitious goal to reach net zero emissions by 2050”, the Lord Mayor said.
The council is also calling on the Federal Government to establish a Just Transition Authority to ensure Australians employed in fossil fuel industries find appropriate alternate employment.

We also call on the Government to establish a Just Transition Authority to ensure Australians employed in fossil fuel industries find appropriate alternate employment.

— Clover Moore (@CloverMoore) June 24, 2019

“We became Australia’s first carbon neutral council in 2007, and as of June 2017, we’d reduced emissions in our own operations by 25 per cent, Ms Moore said.
"In 2020, we will be powered by 100 per cent renewable energy, allowing us to meet our 2030 target by 2024 – six years early.”



The Climate Council's chief executive Amanda McKenzie said Sydney’s declaration - which the City Council is expected to easily approve - underlined “just how serious the climate change issue is.”
“It is a genuine crisis,” she said. “Sydney has responded in an appropriate way.”
Earlier this year, a group of Australian councils declared a ‘climate emergency’ after a UN report warned urgent, widespread action was needed to prevent the two degrees Celsius temperature increase that could tip the planet into catastrophic global warming.

Links

• The Climate Crisis Is Our Third World War. It Needs A Bold Response
• Climate Change Doomsday Report Predicts End Of Human Civilisation
• Time To Flick Climate Emergency Switch: A Plea To Our New Parliament
• The Heat Is On Over The Climate Crisis. Only Radical Measures Will Work
• Come Senators, MPs, There's A Climate Emergency Raging
• The Guardian View On Extinction: Time To Rebel
• Biodiversity Crisis Is About To Put Humanity At Risk, UN Scientists To Warn
• Our Carbon Budget Is All But Spent, But Who In Canberra Is Counting?