Well, that was a big year! Our last submission (to the Dept of Climate Change, Energy Environment and Water) will be issued on December 15th, bringing the total for the last 3 months to 12 formal submissions!!

In our most recent submission, Sustainable Finance Strategy issued 30th November, we provided feedback on the Treasury's consultation paper to ensure a finance regime that supports the future for our children. Notably, we have:

• Argued for a safe future for our children, especially in the context of the rapidly changing planet.
• Recommended urgently scaling up of sustainable green technologies, as our planet crosses critical thresholds.
• Supported Treasury’s intention to take a more proactive approach to the current voluntary climate and sustainability disclosures but recommend a far more ambitious tightening of financial rules and much better enforcement. 
• noted that Australia’s proposed framework falls well short of EU and world best practice in these aspects, and as an advanced developed economy with an ambition to be a leader in sustainability, we need to be doing more, now.

Prior to this and in the last 3 months of the year, we have made formal submissions for:

• Nov’23 - Climate ‘Duty of Care’ Act – should government decision makers consider the wellbeing of current and future children when making decisions likely to contribute to climate change (such as increasing Scope 1, 2 or 3 emissions)?  We argue that they should, and thus urgently make deep cuts to Australia’s carbon emissions, to protect our children’s futures.
• Nov’23 - Future of Gas Consultation – should we continue to extract and ship cheap gas (with considerable climate leakage), or should we recognise the climate impacts and signal a phase out of gas?  Doing this may well cause ‘security of supply concern’ and may well inspire the countries we ship gas to (including Japan and South Korea to invest in renewables and drive innovation and costs down. Did you know that the Australian gas export industry amounts to 21% of Australian domestic emissions!
• Oct’23 - NSW Climate Change (Net Zero Future) Bill – whilst welcoming proposed legislation to reduce emissions, we were disappointed by the limitations of the Climate Change Bill as it proposed weak targets and contains no penalties for missing them. Furthermore, there is no ratchet for future increases, nor emission budgets and no risk assessment to establish priorities and adaptation. We were delighted to see some of our recommendations be adopted including the former governments 70% by 2035 target (which had been their policy taken to the State election, but was never legislated).
• Oct’23 – Illawarra Offshore Wind submission – while have concerns about the effectiveness of community consultation and information, Parents for Climate is supportive of the proposal and specifically notes that the offshore wind farm is expected to provide many environmental, social and economic benefits, as well as improved ecological benefits for birdlife and fish (as observed at offshore windfarms elsewhere). There is currently no evidence that offshore wind farms endanger marine mammals such as whales and Parents for Climate has been dismayed by the misinformation circulating to the contrary. 
• Oct’23 – Residential Electrification – Parents for Climate endorses accelerated residential and vehicle electrification, noting the environmental benefits such as reduced methane spillage and economic benefits from increased renewable electricity and compensating reduction in uneconomic domestic gas usage. We would like to see policies that help owners, renters, low income and disadvantaged households and apartment dwellers enjoy the lower costs, better health and comfort benefits of thermally efficient, fully electrified homes.

Are you are based in the Illawarra region? There is less than one week to add your voice to the Illawarra Offshore Wind proposal and support climate action. Can you make a submission in support? (It takes less than 5 minutes!) You can also make a submission if you are a regular visitor, holiday maker to the area or a member of the public who wishes to support a just transition to renewable energy projects.