On Saturday local youth from the Northern Rivers held an AYCC stall at Lismore’s Rock the Gate to engage with the local community on the issue of renewable energy as an alternative to CSG and any other dirty power sources.
Pictured are just some of the 65,000 young members of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition – Australia’s biggest youth-run organisation.
The AYCC has just launched a new campaign, Repower Australia, to both push the federal government to increase its investment in renewable energy and empower young people to start repowering their communities.
‘As a young person, dependency on archaic, dirty coal is swindling away my future. I’m so excited about the passing of the Clean Energy Bill and our government’s taking that first step towards climate action – but we need to aim higher and work towards a 100 per cent renewable-powered Australia,’ said Repower Australia event organiser Amelia Hicks.
The Lismore-based group is looking for a local business to collaborate with to transition the business’s premises to renewable energy. The transformation would be one of many businesses, cafes, pubs and schools that are being repowered to jump-start the much-needed transformation to renewable energy.
As part of the campaign, the AYCC has created a petition to the government and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation calling on the new $10 billion clean energy fund to be invested in safe, reliable, renewable energy – not emissions-intensive and polluting industries such as gas. Already more than 26,000 young people have signed the petition, with thousands joining every week.
‘We know the CEFC is under pressure from polluting industries but young people and the community want renewable-energy solutions.’
The Australian Youth Climate Coalition is a coalition of Australia’s largest youth organisations and comprises more 65,000 young people from across Australia. Their mission to is build a generation-wide movement to solve climate change before it’s too late, through bringing about short-term political impact and long-term cultural change.