Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action

$40,000 | August 2023

What do Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action do?

Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action (BSCA) is a nonpartisan grassroots constituency group and a community of bushfire survivors. They bring real power and moral authority to the climate movement through their lived experience of climate impacts and authentic storytelling, enabling them to cut across politics and appeal to a broad audience at a personal level.

Why is this work important?

Bushfires may be a distant memory for some, but indications are that this summer will bring a higher fire risk, and the likely return of another dangerous El Nino event. There is daily news of wildfires already raging in the northern hemisphere. Yet public polls indicate a lowering of concern about climate as other issues impact households. And our government continues to allow new coal and gas projects including the extension of one underground coal mine which alone will effectively double Australia’s annual (2021) emissions.

How is Groundswell supporting this work?

With Groundswell’s support, BSCA’s focus over the next 12 months includes lobbying politicians for greater ambition, challenging environmental regulators to act faster, and challenging the social licence of fossil fuels in the media.

Activities include:

• Increasing the number of regular meetings with conservative and progressive politicians (federal and state) urging them to greater climate ambition (with relevant specific asks)

• Monitoring and challenging the NSW EPA to implement it’s Climate Change Plan faster (i 2021 we won an historic case in the Land and Environment Court against the NSW EPA and we remain a key stakeholder, compelling the agency to implement their Climate Change Plan with increasing urgency and effect)

• Advocating for a strong federal Environment Protection Agency and Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act with reforms that will genuinely protect the environment from the harms caused by fossil fuels and climate change

• Considering new climate litigation opportunities when and if a suitable case emerges

• Recruiting, training and supporting new spokespeople and getting the stories and advocacy of bushfire survivors into the media

• Seizing the opportunity of a dangerously hot, dry (probably El Nino) summer to remind governments and the public that these climate impacts and likely accompanying bushfires, are exacerbated by fossil fuel emissions, and we must act much faster to bring emissions down to safer levels

• Adding our voices to other NGO’s campaigns that align with our goals, objectives and theory of change

• Consulting with leading First Nations groups and local Elders on appropriate ways to advocate for low carbon Aboriginal land management practices

• Increasing awareness throughout the environmental movement of the power of voices from climate-impacted communities, and the need for respectful, informed and genuine consultation and inclusion in all decisions which may affect survivors