The challenge has today been laid for Queensland women to help form an army of one million Australian women dedicated to combating climate change.
Premier Anna Bligh and Climate Change and Sustainability Minister Kate Jones today launched the 1 Million Women national campaign in Brisbane. Both are campaign ambassadors.
Ms Bligh urged Queensland to punch above its weight and account for a quarter of the one million women target in the major campaign, which is being sponsored by the Queensland Government.
“We want women to step up to the climate change challenge and collectively cut their carbon footprints,” Ms Bligh said.
“This can make a real difference because women make approximately 70 per cent of consumer decisions that affect the household carbon footprint.
“Our funding of $40,000 has been instrumental in getting this off the ground – and I see this as just another way of reaching our target of reducing by one third Queensland households’ carbon footprint by 2020.
“The goal of the campaign is to inspire one million everyday Australian women– regardless of age, beliefs, backgrounds, careers, education and financial situation – to make an online commitment to each cut one tonne of CO2, in a year.
“That is the equivalent to taking 250,000 cars off the road for 12 months – which is enough pollution to fill 2.3 billion wheelie bins.”
The Premier said the government was committed to early action on climate change in Queensland through a range of innovative policy, programs and initiatives.
“However, government can only do so much - individuals also have a responsibility to ensure their actions are sustainable,” she said.
“Individual action can and does have an impact and this campaign will demonstrate the power of that collective action.”
Ms Bligh said she was confident Queensland women would step up the challenge.
“We’ve seen that it can be done – the south-east Queensland water crisis proved that we are willing and able to take action,” she said.
“Our response resulted in south-east Queensland being one of the most water efficient regions in the western world, without compromising our quality of life.”
Ms Jones said the campaign call for women to cut a minimum of one tonne of CO2 within a year could be easily achievable with just a few changes to everyday activities.
“The campaign’s website www.1millionwomen.com.au shows women how to make these carbon changes in lifestyle categories such as food, household, shopping, and renewable energy,” she said.
“The changes are added up in CO2, and show you how small changes can add up to making a big difference to the size of your carbon footprint.
“The beauty of this campaign is that many of the activities are low cost - for example switching off appliances at the power point will cut carbon kilos and could save money on householder energy bills.
“It is a known fact that women are also great networkers.
“It makes sense then to call on the strength of the position of women in community to lead a campaign and to use our networks as platforms to tackle climate change in Queensland.”
1 Million Women is an initiative led by a non-profit Sydney company Climate Coolers to encourage one million mothers, sisters, daughters, grandmothers, colleagues and team mates to reduce their carbon footprints.
Women can join the campaign at www.1millionwomen.com.au and register to start cutting carbon.
For information on the Queensland Government’s suite of climate change programs and initiatives, go to www.climatesmart.qld.gov.au
18 June, 2009
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