Strategies in Action


SA Parliament House, with Susan Close MP holding 10,000+ petition signatures

South Autralian Climate Emergency Declaration

On 31 May 2022, both the Lower House and the Upper House of the South Australian Parliament passed the following Climate Emergency Declaration, proposed by Deputy Premier Dr. Susan Close MP:

That this house —
(a) notes the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report confirms that greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, and current plans to address climate change are not ambitious enough to limit warming to 1.5° Celsius above pre-industrial level — a threshold scientists believe is necessary to avoid more catastrophic impacts;

(b) notes that around the world, climate change impacts are already causing loss of life and destroying vital ecosystems;

(c) declares that we are facing a climate emergency; and

(d) commits to restoring a safe climate by transforming the economy to zero net emissions.

Background

The SA Upper House passed a Climate Emergency Declaration motion on 25 September 2019 but it was not debated in the Lower House at that time.

Then, a dedicated bunch of helpers managed to collect an amazing 10,500 signatures on a citizens’ formal on-paper petition despite COVID making it a lot harder. You can see the petition text here. The petition was an unbranded citizens’ petition initiated by several SA individuals rather than any particular group. Under SA legislation, on-paper petitions that reach over 10,000 signatures are tabled in Parliament, recorded in Hansard, and guaranteed a ministerial response.

On August 24 2021, Susan Close MP tabled the petition and proposed a motion to declare a Climate Emergency. See photos from that day on the Facebook Event page here. However, her motion was not discussed before sitting ended prior to the 2022 state elections. She proposed the motion again as a first order of business once Parliament resumed after the election.

Please help with the next steps!

Now it’s time to contact state MPs and ask them to support urgent concrete Climate Emergency action!

Call for urgent first actions, such as:
– Take steps to electrify everything (with renewable electricity)
– Ban new fossil fuel exploration, extraction, and infrastructure (encourage SA to sign the global Fossil Fuel Non-proliferation Treaty)
– Electrify transport
– Explore the drawdown potential of land use (soil carbon, etc)
– etc.

MP Contact details (email and phone) are at https://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/en/House-of-Assembly/Members.

Feel free to join the SA Climate Emergency Declaration public group on Facebook group if you’d like to keep in the loop re follow-up campaigns for putting words into action.