Association of Child Welfare Agencies Conference, 2008 Management and Leadership Institute

1. Association of Child Welfare Agencies Conference, 2008 Management and Leadership Institute

2. introduction • Thank you for the invitation • Action, not self flagellation – why has the sector come late to climate change • Challenge is to empower and give children hope • All good stories begin with “Once upon a time” • “Good old fashioned, acceptable rain” • The experience of climate change - .9 degree, -30% over the past 50 years

3. Key themes • Work with the facts • Take a holistic view – distributed generation v’s large scale renewable generation, green generators, existing buildings v’s new buildings, Prius v’s small, efficient fleet • Work together, develop agreed policy positions & generate the scale of change needed to respond to the challenge

4. How do I approach climate change • Central element in sustainability • Bruntland definition - "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

5. European Environment Agency Sustainable Development Program • provide future generations with the same environmental potential as presently exists (address intergenerational equity) • manage economic growth to be less resource intensive and less polluting (decouple economic growth from environmental deterioration) • better integrate sectoral and environmental policies (integrate sectors) • maintain and enhance the adaptive capacity of the environmental system (ensure environmental adaptability) • avoid irreversible long-term environmental damage to ecosystems and human health (prevent irreversible damage) • avoid imposing unfair or high environmental costs on vulnerable populations (ensure distributional equity)

6. How I approach climate change • Mitigation - limit warming to 2 degrees • Transformation • Energy generation • Energy use • NABERS • regulation • Adaptation

7. NSW Cost Curve

8. How I approach climate change • Adaptation - Aust. Urban Housing Research Institute • Preparing for and responding to natural disasters and environmental emergencies: a guide for state housing authorities • Examine experiences and lessons that can be learnt from risk-management and planning as well as actual responses to natural disasters and environmental emergencies in Australia and abroad. • Will take into account housing planning and contingency practices that might be put in place should such an event occur; and explore the policies required to enable SHAs and the wider housing industry to respond effectively to such an event.

9. How I approach climate change • Mitigation – the priorities • Use credible benchmarks to measure impacts • Energy efficiency • Renewable energy – green power • Less CO2 intensive energy sources • Offsets – energy efficiency

10. What I suggest for your organisations • Establish a Working Group • What can be done in organisations to make sustainability a central driver & climate change a key sustainability focus • What can be done at the policy level • What can be done in the services you provide to children

11. In your organisations • Understand the impacts of activities • The spaces you rent, the places you own • Benchmark performance with NABERS • Energy (greenpower), water, waste, indoor air quality, transport • Products you purchase

12. At the policy level • Current policy NSW Department of Housing – replace ‘like with like’ when replacing hot water systems - electric hot water systems • Energy Australia’s submission before the Australian Energy Regulator ($8.6 billion on infrastructure in next 4 years, $5 million actual on DM, 100% increase in network cost which is 50% of domestic energy bills over next 4 yr)

13. In the services you provide for children • Working Group review of sustainability best practices in child welfare organisations internationally as a starting point • Creative assessment of the opportunities • Victorian program of gardens & kitchens in schools supported by Federal funding

14. Association of Child Welfare Agencies Conference, 2008 Management and Leadership Institute