Understorey: Finding WA’s Climate Courage

WA Climate Leaders want the Minister for Climate Action, Amber-Jade Sanderson, to set clear climate targets that honour the 2015 Paris agreements, and to lead the whole community in the face of our new climate realities. That includes explaining why we mustn’t allow warming of our climate more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, but also recognising the business opportunities that are waiting for us to become renewable global leaders.

WA Climate Leaders is a network that came out of the 2020 visit to Perth by UN negotiator Christiana Figueres, who managed the impossible – bringing the leaders of 195 countries into a global consensus at COP21, creating the 2015 Paris Agreement.  Last year, Figueres came to Perth, but not one representative from the state government was able to find time to share a public stage with her, to talk about their action on climate.  That lack of leadership from the state government (and the reluctance of oil and gas to talk about the issue) shocked facilitator Meri Fatin into action.  Since March 2020 she has been working independently to create a Climate Leaders’ network in Western Australia, comprising business and industry leaders working across diverse networks to strongly encourage our state political leaders into action.

Meri Fatin supports Brad Pettitt’s Climate Action Bill introduced to state parliament last week because it is consistent with the Paris Agreement, and similar initiatives in other states and territories, and thus deserves cross-party and mainstream support. Meanwhile she calls on Western Australians to educate themselves about the issue, speak to politicians about their concerns, think carefully about their vote and, where appropriate, move their money.

Photo Collage: Meri Fatin, Christian Figueres, Amber-Jade Sanderson