How communities can end the climate wars: the role of community-led policy in climate transition – Hybrid Session

Presented by Sydney Policy Lab

Australian debates over climate policy have historically struggled to constructively engage communities at the centre of the fossil fuel industry. Part of the disconnect has come because many local communities perceive that policy and political agendas are being imposed from outside. Indeed, in places like Geelong, economic transition has failed communities before with rising unemployment and weak industry renewal programs failing to serve community needs.

In this workshop, we explore an alternative strategy for climate and economic transition that is led by climate affected and fossil fuel communities. The Sydney Policy Lab’s Real Deal project joins together a network of broad-based coalitions of placed-based communities in places like Gladstone, Western Sydney, Geelong, and other transition communities like the Hunter and Collie. In each place the Real Deal is using co-design tools, like the Relational Method, to build broad local networks, then to support communities to listen broadly, and then with the teams of academics to craft new transition and industry policies that can be negotiated as solutions to the climate crisis from the ground up.

This panel will hear from a mixture of community participants and researchers, including energy unions from Gladstone, environmental leaders from Geelong and religious leaders from Western Sydney, all of whom are working on Real Deal ground up climate policies with the Sydney Policy Lab.

Speakers to be announced.