Leading scientist Tim Flannery addresses Sydney council as climate emergency is declared
Former Australian of the Year Tim Flannery, the country’s foremost climate scientist, received rapturous applause as he addressed a council meeting to warn against nuclear power as a ‘climate emergency’ was declared for the region.
Manly
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Australia’s foremost climate scientist addressed councillors on Tuesday night as they voted to declare a climate emergency on the northern beaches.
Former Australian of the Year Tim Flannery, who lives in Manly, received rapturous applause from the packed public gallery as he addressed the Northern Beaches Council meeting in Dee Why.
There was then a standing ovation as councillors voted to declare a climate emergency.
However, the decision was not unopposed or without heated debate.
Tuesday’s agenda had several climate change-related items including Cr Natalie Warren’s call for a climate emergency, Cr Pat Daley’s push for a discussion on nuclear energy and the council proposed targets for solar uptake.
Mr Flannery spoke to challenge Cr Daley’s notice of motion on nuclear energy.
“Nuclear power is inappropriate for Australia and is also in decline globally,” he said.
“Forty years ago nuclear power provided about 17 per cent of global electricity generated. “Today that figure is about 10 per cent and … over the next six years around a quarter of all nuclear capacity in advanced economies will be shut down.”
He said nuclear and coal were not able to meet the changing demands of today’s energy market.
“What we need is a market fit for purpose where we can generate electricity to demand and that’s with clean energy with back up battery storage. That is the main source of new power plants globally, clean wind and solar and I recommend that council focus on that.”
Sara Rickards, a qualified biomedical scientist from Manly, also addressed councillors and warned there was limited time to reverse the impacts of climate change.
She said she had collected a 2000-signature petition calling for the declaration of a climate emergency.
Schoolgirl Stephanie Evans also spoke and pleaded with councillors to act.
Cr Natalie Warren, who introduced the motion, said it was now or never.
“We only have a few years to radically reduce emissions or face a runaway global climate catastrophe … which include sea level rise, the increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events, mass species extinction and food insecurity. That to me is an emergency.
“To quote Greta Thunberg ‘I want you to act as if your house is on fire, because it is.’”
But not everyone agreed with council calling for a climate emergency with Cr Pat Daley describing it as “another example of extremism”.
“We acknowledge that there is climate change and we acknowledge we need to do something about it,” he said. “But it is how we go about it without trashing the economy and without trashing our whole way of life.”
After being jeered by those in the public gallery, he added: “The way this council is heading, I feel for staff …
“I’m criticising the wacky direction this council is now going under this current administration and hopefully this will all change next September.”
Cr Rory Amon also voted against calls for a climate emergency, stating that council should not concern itself with State and Federal Government matters.
“This council does not declare natural disaster emergencies, the state government does because they have the policy levers and the finances to deal with those issues,” he said.
He also challenged UK-born Cr Warren to pledge to forgo personal air travel as part of her climate emergency.
She replied: “I have a solar array that produces 7kw, I have a Tesla battery, I have an electric car I have as many trees on my property that I can get away with.
“Yes I fly, so shoot me. If I could get away with not flying that would be great.
“But I have a 16-month-old and his grandmother would never forgive me … I am doing everything I can to try and make up for the fact that I do fly.”
Cr Sarah Grattan challenged Cr Amon and said climate change must be tackled by all levels of government.
“In our papers this evening we had two flood studies and another large bit of reading on the bushfire prone land. I would suggest these issues are closely related to climate change and are part of the core business of council,” she said.
“It impacts not only our reading over the weekend but the council’s costs, our insurance, just look at the impact we had of the Collaroy storms … so I would say this is very relevant to the people around this table at this level of government.”
There was applause and a standing ovation from the public gallery as the council voted to declare a climate emergency by 12 votes to two. Just Cr Daley and Cr Amon voted against.
In voting for the motion, council officers will report back within three months stating what the local authority is doing to accelerate action on climate change.
Council will also write to NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean MP, Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Prime Minster Scott Morrison and the relevant state and federal MPs and ask them too to declare a climate emergency.
More than 30 other local authorities across Australia, including the City of Sydney, have declared a climate emergency as well as 900 councils around the world, representing 200 million people.
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