A bit of history

Climate Change Balmain-Rozelle 

The idea for this group was born in 2005 at a Global Warming Forum in Balmain Town Hall . By 2006, a few local parents Sue Lewis,  Alison Potter, Sabina Carney, Alex and Steve Peters and Jenny Curtis had formed Climate Change Balmain Rozelle.

They started fundraising to install rooftop solar PV panels at Rozelle and Balmain Public Schools. First event was a fundraising dinner which raised $3,000. The panels were fully installed by 2010.

In 2008 the group joined with dozens of other groups in the "C'mon Kevin, Turn the Tide - Peak carbon by 2010" campaign.

In those first few years there were plenty of rallies involving many groups: Jenny Curtis was the keynote speaker at several of them - in Canberra as well as locally. We also organised film screenings at Leichhardt and Glebe Town Halls – An Inconvenient Truth, The Age of Stupid, The Future Makers among them.

In 2010 we produced a short video called 100 percent renewable is 100 percent do-able – for the 100percent renewable campaign.

At that stage, the focus on all of our campaigning then was to stay positive: “say Yes to Renewables” rather than “no to coal”. That changed later.

We campaigned "Let's Build Big Solar"  for solar power plants in 2011-2012, including a visit to Parliament House Canberra where we visited every MP’s office and handed out sunshine-iced cup-cakes to every MP. One MP later said that it was the best lobbying exercise he’d seen all year!

Here in Balmain we went to Ballast Point Park where we acted out a big solar array with about 50 of us each holding a large foil-covered board – supposedly all reflecting sunshine onto a single point. Unfortunately it had been raining up to about an hour before the event, and the sky was still leaden, the sun not to be seen. Still ABC’s 7.30 Report had heard about it and sent a film crew, and did a short report on the event – a few days later.

In 2013, Tony Abbott became Prime Minister and CCBR turned its focus on more local issues. One group set out to promote rooftop solar for residents: led by Gavin Gilchrist, this eventually became Inner West Community Energy – they’ve now organised solar PV for over 400 installations.

Another project – spearheaded by Angela Michaelis and supported by Kate Marcus - got a Council community grant to focus on reducing food waste – both in local cafes and at home. This was a decade before council rolled out FOGO bins!

 In 2015, we held a successful public meeting ("What About Paris?") where expert speakers explained the upcoming Paris climate talks. This encouraged us to start our bi-monthly "Climate in the Pub" meetings - initially at the Three Weeds, but now at the Merton Hotel. We’ve now run nearly 60 of these, on topics ranging from how superannuation funds invest in fossil fuels, to tips on saving energy in the home.

Then Covid struck!. Meetings went online via Zoom during lockdown. We called it Climate in the Pub – Home Delivery..But we’ve been back to Pub meetings for several years now.

The Stop Adani campaign was one of several causes that brought us to protest marches and rallies such as the 2016 People's Climate March, Stop Adani, the Walk for Water, and the School Strike for Climate in 2019. These rallies were growing each time but momentum was cut short by Covid, and hasn’t really returned.

In 2019 we were awarded the "Most Outstanding Member Group" by the Nature Conservation Council.

 Meanwhile we have had stalls at local markets, and at Footprints Eco-Festival every year since 2011 and we’ve had many meetings with local MPs and councillors.

In recent years, our Sustainable Transport group, headed by Tim Hand, has accomplished a lot. They meet weekly – the coffee must be good at Charlottes – and are scoring runs with local EV charging facilities, and the promised Glebe Island Bridge reopening.

And of course we remain focussed on coal and oil extraction, and the glaring mismatch between our net zero Paris commitment, and the continued approvals of new, or extended mining activities.

 We write detailed submissions to a range of enquiries by government bodies. Typically, mostly where approval is sought for new or extended coal mines or gas fields. Derek Bolton has brought his expertise to bear on the great majority of these.

We have about 50 full members who pay a small subscription to support our activities. And  our newsletter list is steady at just over a thousand members – who get a monthly newsletter of activities, news and views.

When we started out, only a few people had even heard of climate change or greenhouse gas emissions. But now, with another twenty years of emissions accumulated in the atmosphere, it's not just about accepting that climate change is real: it's about making changes at all levels, as quickly as possible.