Residents in Geelong want to look at a future that doesn’t contain toxic fossil fuels. We don’t want to see any more investments in coal, gas or oil, in infrastructure for export of fossil fuels, or in machines that use it. We want to see our city transformed into a clean, green and sustainable city powered on 100% renewables.

The age of dirty fossil fuels is over. Geelong – along with the rest of the world – is going to transition to clean, renewable energy sources and zero carbon emissions. The only question is how quickly or how slow it is going to happen.

Peer-reviewed climate science, the United Nations and numerous scientific bodies have warned us that we are not doing enough to phase out CO2 emissions, and that this will lead to catastrophic consequences for the climate. We are already feeling the heat, with 2014 and 2015 being the warmest years ever measured on the planet.

In February 2016, global temperatures spiked to well over 1.5°C above pre-industrial times, just weeks after the Paris Climate Agreement set an aim of not exceeding that benchmark. Climate scientists say that we are facing a climate emergency, and that the future of ecosystems and human civilisation now hang in the balance. Our Great Barrier Reef is dying as the oceans heat up and recent fires in Tasmania burned ancient world-heritage forests. 

Our moral responsibility to our children and grandchildren doesn’t give us a choice: we must wholeheartedly put all our stakes on clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives now.

The development of renewable energy technology is gaining momentum, and prices have been reduced dramatically in recent years. This development will continue as our demand for renewables increases.

Future Proofing Geelong which is financed by the City of Greater Geelong, Geelong Chamber of Commerce, and a number of state authorities, has put forward a goal for Geelong to become “internationally recognised as one of the world’s most sustainable cities” by 2030, a “productive, vibrant and liveable city.”

It is one or the other, guys! This has to be more than just words. It must be followed by action. 

___________________________________________________________

When you sign the petition letter, it is important that you also contribute with a small text about why you think this is important. Geelong citizen's personal comments to the Council will most likely have a greater influence than just the number of signatures.

___________________________________________________________ 

What does it look like at the moment?

• Australia’s government is subsidising the fossil fuel industry with over $10 billion a year, and this figure is on the rise.

• Australia plans to invest over $100 billion in new coal mining developments over the next 15 years and recently announced it is opening a new Oil, Gas and Coal Growth Centre with a $15 million dollar budget over four years, while it has also recently invested $3.3 million dollars in, yet again, surveying ‘wind turbine sickness.’

• 92 percent of Victoria’s electricity is generated using brown coal, and it is not certain whether the Victorian State Government is going to change its plans to greatly expand coal mining in Victoria through the creation of an export industry, using tax payers money to build new roads and ports. One coal mining licence is soon to be reviewed in Bacchus March.

• Victoria’s, Australia’s and the world’s greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to rise.

• The world is not on track to meet the target agreed by governments to limit the long-term rise in the average global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius, according to United Nation’s climate panel IPCC, and the International Energy Agency, an autonomous agency which was established in 1974.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

» Listen to the podcast
Geelong’s response to the climate emergency