Climate News 2025:01
Last week’s decision by Mornington Peninsula Shire Council to rescind its climate emergency declaration and dump the associated plan has repercussions and lessons at a number of levels.
First is on the staff and community that supported climate action in Mornington Peninsula and are now left wondering what to do next. They have the burden of picking themselves up and fighting an argument they thought was over six years ago. Second is the broader local government sector. Recent council elections in Victoria saw a slew of new candidates promising a back-to-basics approach to local governance. These elected members will be watching what happened at Mornington Peninsula and planning similar motions. One interesting point during the debate was the examples used by councillors wanting to kill the climate emergency declaration. These included consultancy fees for an urban forest strategy (“when everyone knows where to plant trees”) and council paying for a dishwasher at a private school. This language fits within an anti-expert / elite framing and appeals to those less interested in what council is doing on climate change and more on what council is doing with their rates. There is a way around this, but it comes at a cost. Councils can focus their communications about their projects (not the actual projects) to themes that are likely to appeal to even sceptical councillors. For example, talking of ‘protecting our communities’ or ‘making it safer for specific target audiences (e.g. children or elderly) from the impacts of climate change is difficult to argue against. Similarly, practitioners can draw upon their work with audiences that may be a more natural ally for these councillors. Projects to reduce commercial or industrial emissions can be framed as ‘helping local business’, and ‘ensuring we don’t lose them to a rival area’. The cost is that we are less able to achieve an outcome of energising the whole community around climate change. Whether that matters if projects are delivered and other outcomes are achieved, is a matter for each individual council team. We can still achieve the climate responsive outcomes we desire, but it is crucial to recognise that the way we talk about them (and we do need to talk about them) is just as important if we are to maintain political legitimacy.
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