Doctors for the Environment
$40,000 | November 2020
What do Doctors for the Environment do?
DEA understand that human health and wellbeing are absolutely dependent upon a rich, biodiverse planet where healthy ecosystems sustain life in balance. Humans need a future with clean air and water, healthy soils producing nutritious food, a stable climate, and a complex, diverse and interconnected humanity whose needs are met in a sustainable way.
They aim to educate and alert colleagues, patients, the public and politicians of the:
requirement for a healthy natural environment for human health.
need to prevent and redress environmental degradation locally and globally.
need for sustainable development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising future generations.
use of the best available scientific evidence as the basis for decisions, and the precautionary principle where the evidence is unclear.
Why is this work important?
Formulating climate change as a health issue makes it a non-partisan, universal concern. Doctors are one of the most trusted professional groups in Australia. At a time when trust has been eroded in politicians and with the advent of “fake news”, they can be a voice to which the public will listen. For example, GPs are skilled communicators who translate complex science into language their patients can understand.
Doctors are more broadly seen as conservative and often live and work within traditional Liberal electorates. Using this group for “grassroots advocacy”, particularly within marginal Liberal-National electorates where they might live and work, can be a powerful change agent because of the trust, respect and familiarity that they have earned in their communities. Targeting specific seats, especially marginal and/or where there is a more progressive candidate, maximises the chance of shifting climate and energy policy within the Liberal Party.
Concurrently with local campaigns, DEA has the capacity to conduct national level advocacy to moderate Liberal MPs and Ministers, Labor MPs, and key independents through existing established relationships that allow for both a top-down and bottom-up approach.
How is Groundswell supporting this work?
The next 12 months provide a significant confluence of opportunities for climate action and with Groundswell’s support, DEA will focus on the following project:
Title: Climate action for health’s sake: a road to recovery focused on health for all.
Goal: This campaign seeks to protect the health of all Australians, through policy change and increased public awareness about the health impacts of climate change.
Strategy: The trusted voices of doctors will promote a post-COVID recovery based on renewable energy, more ambitious emissions reduction targets, and the adoption of a national health and climate strategy in the lead-up to the next federal election. This will be achieved by both national advocacy by DEA campaigners as well as local mobilisation of DEA doctors in key electorates with their communities and MPs. The DEA campaign will highlight how climate change negatively impacts health, and disproportionately affects the health of marginalized people, thereby exacerbating inequality;
This campaign will:
train DEA members in advocacy, campaigning and media; highlighting how climate change impacts health;
mobilise DEA’s 1600+ doctor members to engage with their local MPs (particularly in key marginal seats) and to raise awareness of the health effects of climate change within their communities;
conduct national-level advocacy to Members and Senators in Federal Parliament, with a strategic
emphasis on moderate Liberals, crossbench Independents and Labor, both unilaterally and with allied organisations/groups.
Grant update
With Groundswell’s support, FCA achieved the following:
Over $30 million in funding for biodiversity and carbon projects, plus $200 million towards a national soils strategy in the Federal Budget
A series of events held across the Mallee electorate, including a Sunraysia Climate Smart Horticulture event that saw local MP Anne Webster distance herself from the Nats on coal
More than 50 volunteers signed up to our Tasmanian network plus lots of great engagement at Tasmanian field day, AgFest
Great turn out at our Road to Net Zero emissions webinars, the last few focussing on soils and building carbon
Over $180,000 committed by new funders to go towards our agriculture’s pathways to net zero emissions report, to be launched at Parliament House later this year.
To learn more about DEA’s impact, read our interview with CEO Denise Cauchi.