powered up for powershift

This week saw young people across Australia attend Power Shift, a summit organised by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition. The summit was organised to coordinate a massive display of young people's commitment to finding stronger climate solutions.

When I first heard about Power Shift, I thought it was a great opportunity for young people across the country to learn more about climate change from leading figures of the climate movement. The organisers are keen to see young people armed with information to implement clear and ambitious plans of action to combat climate change. I was keen to ensure that young people from Yarra Ranges were represented at Power Shift.

I was very pleased to be able to assist with funding for a group of students from the Sherbrooke Community School to go up Power Shift. The students from Sherbrooke Community School are very active when it comes to climate change, two of them joining me recently for a meeting with Greg Hunt (federal Shadow Minister for the Environment).

Jamie Rudd, me and Nerida Lennon, the two young leaders I sponsored to go up to Power Shift.


I was also pleased to sponsor two of the Shire's "Young Leaders", Jaymie Rudd and Nerida Lennon to attend the summit.

Jaymie said the conference was a great opportunity to meet people who share the same opinions on climate change and were interested in making a difference.

Nerida said the conference gave her the chance to explore her interest in actions people could take to create and secure a positive future in terms of climate change.

The summit is covering a huge range of topics including campaign and event planning, public speaking, lobbying and leadership development and will be of great assistance to young people trying to get the message about climate change out there.

A number of presentations to be made include ‘How Combating Climate Change Leads to Job Creation’ and ‘International Security and Climate Change’, with keynote speakers including Dr Tim Flannery and Chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Dr Rajendra Pachauri.

I can't wait to hear how they all went, I'm sure they are now equipped with a valuable insight into current news on climate change and the knowledge and tools they need to pass on the message to their peers and the broader community.

A salient point was made at this weekend's Power Shift summit by Co-director of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Anna Rose, who said "Young people have the most to lose from climate change, we're the last generation that has the chance to solve this problem in terms of the time frame scientists have told us we have."

And she's right.