November Grant Winners

We are delighted to introduce you to the four winners of Groundswell’s November climate action grants, each valued at $40,000. These climate advocacy projects were shortlisted and voted for by Groundswell members, from a pool of nearly 40 strong applications from across the country.

Tackling the climate crisis through strategic litigation, Environmental Defenders Office

Our $40,000 Groundswell grant will support the Environmental Defenders Office Safe Climate Team to develop landmark, innovative litigation on behalf of clients that prevent new coal and gas proposals and stop existing projects expanding in the Australia Pacific region.

“Thank you to all Groundswell members for your wonderful support of the Environmental Defenders Office. This grant will bolster the work of our Safe Climate Team, who develop innovative legal solutions on behalf of our clients. EDO is increasingly achieving historic wins for climate action and breaking new ground in Australia. Collective giving mechanisms such as Groundswell help to fund the urgent work that is required in the face of fossil fuel expansion.”
— Elaine Johnson, CEO

Taking bushfire survivors’ stories to the federal election, Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action

Approaching the federal election, we will execute a targeted campaign across four key fire-affected federal electorates educating voters, candidates and MPs on the escalating bushfire and other extreme climate threats and advocating for a faster transition to clean, renewable energy.

 
 
“We will be employing and resourcing community organisers in several key electorates to make sure all candidates and the communities who vote for them, understand how critically urgent action is on climate heating. The team at BSCA are very grateful to Groundswell, to the many people who’s contributions have made this possible, and to all the millions of other climate warriors who fight alongside us every day.”
— Jo Dodds, President

Bridging personal and data-driven stories to shift political power in Lindsay, Sweltering Cities + The Australia Institute

We will make climate impacts a central issue in the marginal Western Sydney seat of Lindsay. We will launch new analysis of local heat projections, empower diverse community advocates, and equip politicians with tailored climate solutions. It combines our organisations’ community leadership and data-driven research.

“This grant will allow us to work directly with communities who are feeling the extreme heat impacts of climate change right now, and support them to share their powerful stories with decision makers. This funding will support Sweltering Cities to expand our team with a community campaigner based in Sydney’s Western Suburbs.”
— Emma Bacon, Sweltering Cities CEO

Victorian Coal Pollution Case, Environment Victoria

Environment Victoria is taking Victoria’s environment regulator and the Latrobe Valley coal-fired power stations to court over their failure to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. It will be the first case to test Victoria’s key climate change legislation and challenge lax regulation of pollution from the dirtiest power stations in Australia.

 
 
“This Groundswell grant not only provides the critical funding we need to go to court, it also sends a powerful message to Victoria’s environmental regulator and Australia’s dirtiest coal-fired power stations: people care about climate justice and are pooling their resources together to make this case possible. Thank you!”
— Jono La Nauze, CEO

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Comms Declare
Comms Declare

A significant part of the fossil fuel industry’s soft power is advertising and sponsorships, where companies position themselves as part of Australia’s identity and essential to the economy. This advertising gives the industry undeserved social licence and further entrenches its damaging practices. Momentum has been growing both internationally and domestically against fossil fuel promotion, with secretary general of the United Nations António Guterres last month calling on all countries to ban advertising for coal, petroleum and gas companies.

Farmers for Climate Action
Farmers for Climate Action

Farmers for Climate Action (FCA) started in 2015 with a meeting of 30 farmers in the Blue Mountains, NSW, who had spent decades voicing their concerns about climate change to no avail. Today. they have more than 8,000 farmer members as well as more than 45,000 supporters and are one of the most influential climate groups in Australia, ideally positioned to influence governments to implement strong economy-wide climate policy.

Climate Media Centre
Climate Media Centre

If we want our leaders to make good decisions and take more ambitious climate action, then the public must be perceived as wanting change. Which is where the Climate Media Centre (CMC) comes in. As Australia’s go-to bureau for climate stories, they connect journalists with more than 5,000 trained climate spokespeople, driving a constant drumbeat of media stories which reinforce the message that climate change is an urgent priority.

Climate Justice Legal Project
Climate Justice Legal Project

As the climate crisis intensifies, it’s become clear the only meaningful way to turn things around is through action taken at a structural level. This means redesigning our laws, institutions, policies and services so they work for all of us, not just some of us. Enter the Climate Justice Legal Project, a collaboration between the Federation of Community Legal Centres, Environmental Justice Australia and the Climate Council.

Australian Youth Climate Coalition
Australian Youth Climate Coalition

Young people and future generations will live longest with the consequences of decisions made today, despite having done the least to cause the climate crisis and being shut out of decision-making spaces. It’s this injustice that sparked the creation of the Australia Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) as a way to mobilise and organise young people to step up and demand more action from our elected leaders to protect the future they will inherit.

Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility
Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility

By 2030 total global greenhouse gas emissions need to drop by 43% to align with the latest science and keep global warming to 1.5C. This is a massive target and to reach it, Australia’s largest emitters cannot be ignored. Enter ACCR. While you might not have heard much about this shareholder advocacy organisation, they’re behind some the most exciting climate breakthroughs in recent years, including the huge climate shake-up at AGL, Australia’s biggest carbon emitter.

Gudanji For Country Bush Trip
Gudanji For Country Bush Trip

Rikki Dank/Lhudi Noralima is a Gudanji and Wakaya person from the Barkley tablelands area of the Northern Territory, an area more widely known for being part of the Beetaloo Basin. With this Country at risk of fracking, Rikki recently launched Gudanji For Country Bush Trips for small groups of people to witness the impacts of fracking on First Nations communities up close. Here’s what happened.

Healthy Homes for Renters
Healthy Homes for Renters

Sometimes climate change shows up in our lives in extraordinary ways, such as with extreme weather events. But most of the time living with climate change comes down to the most ordinary of moments, like trying to sleep through the night during the heat of summer. This is one of the reasons Better Renting – a community of renters working together for stable, affordable, and healthy homes, climate justice – recently won a Groundswell grant even though they aren’t a climate organisation.

Tomorrow Movement
Tomorrow Movement

Tomorrow Movement call themselves a group of “ordinary young people…fighting for a tomorrow that works for everyone, not just big business.” And yet, there’s nothing ordinary about what they’re doing. Working together as a 5,000 member strong organisation Tomorrow Movement is climate advocacy at its strongest.

Nic Seton on the political power of parents
Nic Seton on the political power of parents

As a parent of two kids with a background in environmental campaigning, Nic Seton knows that while parents are a powerful constituency for progress on climate, they’re usually so flat out managing everything at home and work there’s little time for anything else. So In 2021 he became CEO of Australian Parents for Climate Action, an organisation made up of 17, 000 parents who together are proving to be an unstoppable force for climate action.

arielle gamble