COMMENT

By Amanda McKenzie
 
Recently I met an 11-year-old, Amy, at a school in Victoria. Like many primary school children she was able to articulate the science and issues surrounding climate change clearly. However, what stuck with me was Amy’s deep concern for her own future and the future of her peers. Amy will have to wait another seven years before she is able to vote, however the decisions that will impact her future are being made today.
Climate change is consistently framed as a political, economic and ecological issue. While the moral dimension is noted, voices of those that will suffer the worst of the consequences are rarely heard.

The Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC), Australia’s largest youth-run youth organisation has more than 50,000 young people and 30 youth organisations making up our membership. The AYCC was founded in late 2006 by a summit of 30 of Australia’s most active youth organisations. We deliberately brought together youth organisations from a diverse range of backgrounds, including medical students, architecture students, school environment groups, faith-based organisations, youth-run development agencies, indigenous groups and more. While these groups have diverse mandates, they all agree that climate change will adversely affect their constituencies and that we all need to work together to solve it.

The AYCC is a not-for profit organisation. We exist only for our mission: to build a generation-wide movement to solve the climate crisis.  We fundamentally believe that large-scale social change is driven by a united many, rather than a powerful few. By building a strategic, effective mass movement we will achieve the short-term national policy shifts necessary to begin solving the climate crisis, as well as putting in train the longer-term culture shifts required to sustain these policies.

Search for stability

The AYCC inspires and mobilises young Australians to take action on climate change within their community, educational institutions, regional areas, nationally and internationally. Our members bring a simple message: young people should be able to enjoy the stable climate that their parents and grandparents have enjoyed.

They insist that immediate and meaningful action must be taken that reflects the severity and urgency of the climate crisis. The AYCC makes climate change a compelling, tangible, relevant issue for young Australians and provides numerous avenues for young people to be involved. We intend to build a generation of social change makers that will continue to create positive change throughout their lifetime.

At the end of 2008 we decided that we wanted to build up the AYCC to be the largest youth initiative on climate in the world. We started with Power Shift, a national youth summit in Sydney bringing together 1500 young people from across the country. Young people were inspired by speakers such as Al Gore and Tim Flannery, connected with their peers and trained in community organising and personal narrative. 

Power Shift attendees were then asked to go home to their communities and start using their new skills and connections to organise for Youth Decide. Youth Decide was a national youth vote on climate change in partnership with World Vision. More than 300 creative events were held around the country, and 20,000 young people participated in these events and 40,000 participated online. Through these projects, as well as our international, schools and advocacy work, we grew ten-fold in 2009 to be the largest per capita youth initiative on climate change in the world – second only to the USA.
 
Growing interest

Much of our offline work is built through our online presence. Young people today, like other generations, have been shaped by the events, developments and trends of their time. They have grown up as digital natives and we are only seeing the very early stages of how social networking will be used by this generation for political impact.

We have consistently built an advocacy platform, meeting with leaders from all sides of politics, as well as encouraging our members to meet with their local member. We are fiercely non-partisan and in our election and political campaigning are keen to support candidates that support comprehensive solutions. 

The under-30 demographic polls consistently, with a strong majority concerned about climate change and desiring immediate action. This interest has been reflected in a surge in interest for environmental and green skills course at universities and TAFEs. Volunteers and staff at the AYCC are consistently delivering talks to a diverse range of schools, universities, TAFEs and youth groups around the country.
We find this to be a good barometer for young people’s knowledge and political perspective.

We also find that we have received a surge of interest around critical times: at the end of 2008 when the emission reduction targets were announced, during the Copenhagen Climate Conference and recently when the CPRS was shelved.

The message during these times has consistently been one of dissatisfaction with the Government’s performance on climate change. Many young people that campaigned for the Rudd Government last election are now very dissatisfied with the lack of domestic action.

Amanda McKenzie is the National Director of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and joint Young Environmentalist of the Year. For more information visit www.aycc.org.au. 

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