In addition to a Climate Change Declaration (CCD) - A Climate Change Emergency Declaration (CCED), or declaring a Climate Emergency, is an action taken by Governments and scientists to acknowledge that humanity is in a climate crisis. The first Declaration was made by an Australian Local Government in December 2016 (the City of Darebin in Melbourne).
A CCED may be adopted by Local Governments committed to taking urgent climate action, intending to allocate resources to rapidly scale up mitigation and adaptation actions.
It is a commitment to “mobilise society-wide resources at sufficient scale and speed to protect civilisation, the economy, people, species and ecosystems” and to “fully restore a safe climate”. The purpose of framing climate change as an emergency is to:
Communicate the urgency and systems change needed
Encourage citizens and politicians to work together for the common good, as they would in other emergency situations
According to https://climateemergencydeclaration.org/, 2,359 Local Government jurisdictions in 18 nations and over 30 countries have declared a Climate Emergency. These areas cover a substantial geographical area, hosting a population in excess of 1 billion citizens.
The City of Armadale has endorsed a CCED. This includes similar information to the CCD, but also:
Further acknowledges the more serious results of climate change (loss of life and the destruction of vital ecosystems)
Commits the organisation to reaching zero emissions as fast as humanly possible, with the scaling up of efforts to draw down excess greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere
States all levels of government (State, Federal and Local) have a duty to respond to the negative impacts of climate change
Commits to working with the Community, State and Federal government and business to mitigate the climate emergency
Identifies the need to revisit Local Government climate change policies and strategies to ensure action is being taken at the necessary scale and speed to meet climate emergency commitments
Ensures the mobilisation of Government, Community resources and funds not normally available
There are 118 Local Governments in Australia that have signed a CCED, including 11 in Western Australia (8 in the metropolitan area).