#155: Charity begins at home

Some updates from us

Mōrena, happy Tuesday, and a warm welcome to our new subscribers!

Almost exactly three years ago, I realised that the tech company I was working for didn’t care about the planet (even though they signed up for all the #netzero pledges). So I decided to quit my job and give Climate Club a bigger go. What a journey it’s been!

I quickly realised the climate crisis isn’t a scientific or technical problem—it’s a communication and behaviour shift challenge. At Climate Club, one of our big goals is to make climate action engaging, accessible, and, dare we say it… cool.

Back in 2021 we had just three of us writing this newsletter. Now we have 16 terrific team members and counting!

Last year, we decided to register as a charity in order to more accurately reflect what our organisation is trying to do, and broaden our reach. This transition brings exciting news for you: thanks to our accountant, we’ve confirmed that all donations and subscriptions are now ✨tax-deductible✨. Please get in touch if you’d like a donation statement!

I’m also thrilled to introduce our three new trustees:

• Karen Swainson from Mindful Money

• Anna Cusack from Amnesty International

• Matthew Mimms from The Investment Store

And the wonderful Maia Ingoe will be joining us nearly full time from the end of March!

Thanks for being part of the movement. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that good things take time - but it’s amazing when they do happen.

What can we do today?

The most-clicked link last week was the Speed Limit Reversal Submission Guide.

🐝 5 minutes: Spark some change ⚡️

• Clean, affordable electricity is essential for the health and wellbeing of people and whānau. Equitable access to this vital resource should be a main priority for our communities. If you’re feeling petitiony we have some quick snappy places for you to put your signature to:

  • Call for a Clean Energy Future

  • Protect families struggling with power prices

  • Ensure affordable power

🐇 15 minutes: Write here, write now

• The things we buy are often set up to be hard to repair - it’s hard to buy the right parts to repair your electronics, and unless you’re a professional, it’s hard to know where to start at all. Being able to cheaply repair products would save time, money and emissions. New legislation would mean suppliers have to make it easier for us to repair things ourselves.

  Action: The Right to Repair Bill is currently in Parliament, and it’s open for submissions. Drop in to the ActionStation submission party on either Wednesday 19th March, 7:30pm-8:30pm or Thursday, 20th March, 11am – 12pm.

💃🏽 30+ minutes: Plan it for the planet

• It’s Council Annual Plan season! Many councils have been under pressure to cut funding to climate-related projects, so it’s more important than ever to really respond and state clearly that you want urgent climate action.
  Action: Search up your regional or city council and weigh in on climate, cycle lanes, densification, projects in their annual plan. Here are links to some of the main cities but otherwise you can search for [your city] + “annual plan”:

  • Christchurch

  • Greater Wellington

  • Auckland

  We don’t have a submission guide for all of these yet, but Bike Auckland has a great primer on some points you can use (for any of the regions)!

Save the Date

• April 11th, Wellington /Te Whanganui-a-tara: School Strike for Climate is back!

Wins!

• This quarter, 94% of all electricity in NZ was renewable as industrial demand for electricity fell

• A gas company removed its greenwashing ads after organisations such as 350 Aotearoa spoke out about it. Great work!

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That’s all for today, folks 👋🏽 Thanks for taking action. Enjoy this pic of a cheeky kea hopping into Dhanya’s holiday!

See you next week,

Emily & the Climate Club team

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