Emergency Leaders for Climate Action
Emergency Leaders Back New Community Climate Plan
Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA), a group of 38 former fire and emergency service chiefs, welcomes the Climate Resilience Plan from Federal independent MP Zali Steggall, announced on Thursday.
Emergency Leaders for Climate Action has long called for more attention and funding to help communities be more resilient in the face of more frequent, severe and often deadly floods, fires and storms driven by climate pollution.
The Member for Warringah’s proposal for a new $10 billion Climate Resilience Fund to prioritise resilient infrastructure in local government areas at high risk of disaster is desperately needed, and would help to better protect communities on the frontline of climate risks.
The Federal Government has developed a National Adaptation Plan and National Climate Risk Assessment. Both are yet to be released. The proposal from Independent MP Zali Steggall to legislate five year updates for both will ensure that all future governments are required to provide Australians with regular updates on the climate risks they face and actions that governments are taking to reduce the impacts of those risks.
Greg Mullins AO AFSM, founding member of ELCA and former Commissioner of Fire and Rescue NSW, said:
“Climate pollution is fuelling more frequent and intense disasters across the nation, and in many instances community infrastructure and households have not been built to withstand the sorts of disasters we’re now experiencing.
“By investing in climate resilient infrastructure in the areas that are most heavily impacted by disasters, the Climate Resilience Plan pays a double dividend – it will directly help protect people on the frontline of climate risks, while putting downward pressure on insurance premiums by reducing the risk of big payouts for disaster losses in future.
“Emergency Leaders for Climate Action has long advocated for a levy on fossil fuel producers to fund a national climate disaster fund. The proposal from Zali Steggall to redirect taxpayer funded fossil fuel subsidies to the Climate Resilience Plan achieves this more efficiently, and will mean that Australians are no longer helping to fund the organisations that are overwhelmingly causing climate pollution and harming our communities.
“I would like to see all parties making similar commitments before the coming election to better prepare community infrastructure for disasters and to ensure Australians know the very real risks they’re facing.”