SUPPORTED BY GREENING

Climate Leaders Conference 2018

ABOUT Aiming to equip youth from across with the skills to become climate leaders in their schools and communities by creating a project that will make a difference for themselves, their community and the planet.

The Conference is part of an Asia Pacific Youth Sustainable Development Goals Challenge focusing on Climate Action and Life below Water. Toby Thorpe the Youth Facilitator at Education for Sustainability Tasmania (EFS Tas) is the event coordinator for Tasmania. The event is supported by the EFS Tas network (a recongised Regional Centre of Expertise by the United Nations University, in education for sustainable development.

WHEN Wednesday 13th June 2018 9:30AM to 2:30PM.

COST Free

FOCUS The event will bring together youth and experts in the fields of climate science, change, justice and action, renewable energy, STEM, and sustainability. Participants will interact with inspiring youth from around the state and will have the opportunity to hear from experts and professionals. Mentors will be available to support students to plan and undertake an on-ground activity in their schools relating to the sustainability development goals 13: Climate Action and 14: Life Below Water.

We aim to create a network of engaged young people across the state who will be inspired to follow their interests by running their own events, volunteering, and investigating further study options. Projects could include rubbish removal at a local river or beach to stop plastics entering the waterways, setting up recycling, planting trees to mitigate climate change effects, hosting educational community talks, creating a video documentary, conducting a leadership event or running a school essay competition.

WHO An audience of up to 100 youth from around the state who are interested, inspired and/or excited to pursue further understandings, opportunities, careers, and education in the fields of climate science, change, justice and action, renewable energy, STEM, and sustainability. Students between the ages of 13 to 24 from anywhere in Tasmania are encouraged to attend. A live stream video will be available of the conference for others who can’t make it to the venue. NOTE: Max 10 students per school. To negotiate email [email protected] or call 0472 639 380.

WHERE Sustainability Learning Centre 50 Olinda Grove Mt Nelson 7007 and College 40 Olinda Grove Mt Nelson 7007. A live stream will be available for schools across the state with school mentors also across all regions.

FOLLOW UP GATHERING Students will connect online throughout the process of implementing their projects until September where they will reconnect to celebrate, network and share their activities. Tasmania’s contribution through this project will be shared in an E-Publication and be part of the agenda at the AP RCE Meeting in Sydney.

OUTCOMES Inspired youth pursuing leadership opportunities, studies, careers, and volunteering in the fields of climate science, change, justice, and action, renewable energy, STEM, and sustainability. With the support from mentors, students will have taken action to mitigate climate change in their schools and communities.

Keynote Speakers: Laura Sykes – Australian Youth Climate Collation National Schools Director Gustaaf Hallegraeff – Professor of Marine Science at IMAS Sarah Muller – Director of the Tasmanian Climate Change Office Mentors – Nel Smit, Toby Thorpe, Millie Rooney, Jo Dean, Zoe Douglas-Kinghorn, Margaret Steadman, Larissa Giddings, Sandy Murray, Mark Blaxall, Chris Harries, Carol Bristow, Sietske Hunn, John Hunter, Ralph Berg, Zara Marais, Peter Wright, Peter Boyer, Sarah Bury, Ingrid Albion, Jenny Dudgeon.

REGISTER Registrations are essential for all students and schools from across the state who wish to participate. To register or for more information contact Toby Thorpe: 0472 639 380 or [email protected] CONVENOR Toby is the Youth Facilitator at the Education for Sustainability Tasmania; a Regional Centre of Excellence and a network of leaders in sustainability research, training and education. Tasmania is recognised by the United Nations as a Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development. Nel Smit is Toby’s mentor and board member of the EFS Tas. Nel has been working with Toby planning this project and in Toby’s words “is an environmental champion”.

Climate Leaders Conference 2018 Registration: Name of Student Supervisor/Teacher Number of Students Student Years School Address Post Code State

Contact Details: Phone Mobile Email

Please indicate student’s areas of interest, e.g. Energy, waste, biodiversity, sustainability, renewable energy, gardening, etc.

Please email completed registration to [email protected] if there are any issues call 0472 639 380

Registrations close 6:00PM Friday 31 May. Please send back at your soonest convenience.

Climate Leaders Conference Plan – Wednesday 13 June

Session 1: 9:30AM – 10:20AM at Sustainable Learning Centre (SLC) 50 Olinda Grove, Mount Nelson Session 2: 10:50AM – 12:10PM at Hobart College Theatre (HC) 40 Olinda Grove, Mount Nelson – Devonport (Video Conference Link), Launceston (Video Conference Link) Session 3: 12:40PM – 1:20PM at Sustainable Learning Centre (SLC) 50 Olinda Grove, Mount Nelson Session 4: 1:20PM – 2:20PM at Sustainable Learning Centre (SLC) 50 Olinda Grove, Mount Nelson Session 5 2:20PM – 2:30PM at Sustainable Learning Centre (SLC) 50 Olinda Grove, Mount Nelson

Please note that northern venues for this conference are waiting to be confirmed.

Session Time What Who 1 9:30AM Introduction, housekeeping and schedule Toby Thorpe and Nel Smit 1 9:40AM Mentor Introduction Mentors 1 9:55AM Map “My” School Schools 1 10:15 Map “My” School Share Schools

- 10:20AM Recess Break Everyone – 10:40

2 10:40AM Arrive – music plays Jaimee Narracott 2 10:50AM Welcome to Country TBC 2 10:55AM Performance Zoe Douglas-Kinghorne and Niamh Cleary-Schofield 2 11:00AM Opening, introduction to Sustainable Toby Thorpe Development Goals 13 (climate action) and 14 (life below water), young people’s part in these goals and climate leaders 2 11:07AM Introduction to Education for Sustainability Corey Peterson and Leah Page Tasmania, history and present. 11:12AM Keynote: Youth Climate Action and Climate Laura Sykes Leadership 2 11:32AM Ben and Jerrys’ climate action video Video (2mins) 2 11:34AM Keynote: Climate Change in Tasmania Sophie Muller 2 11:44AM HHS Climate Leaders Jaimee Narracott and Riley Bianchi 2 11:48AM High School Video Video 2 11:52AM Keynote: Life Below Water Gustaaf Hallegraeff 2 12:02PM SDG Photo and Video Toby Thorpe 2 12:07PM Closure, thankyous Toby Thorpe 2 12:10PM Finish – music plays Jaimee Narracott

- 12:10PM Lunch Everyone – 12:40PM

3 12:40PM Introduction to the next session and split Toby Thorpe off into two groups. 3 12:45PM How to Repower your School Laura Sykes and Zoe Douglas- Kinghorne

4 1:20 Action planning with mentors Students, staff and mentors 4 2:15 Action planning with mentors outcomes Students, staff and mentors

5 2:20 Finish, thankyous, Next-steps, blog, next Toby Thorpe catch up and closure

Climate Leaders Conference Keynote Speakers, Presenters and Performers

Laura Sykes – Australian Youth Climate Collation Originally from Northern Tasmania, Laura is the National Schools Program Director at the AYCC, and is passionate about building a movement of high school students to lead the transition to renewable energy across Australia. She has worked with young people for the past 8 years in social justice, human rights and environmental justice campaigns and programs and is excited to be working to build the youth climate justice movement to ensure a fair, just and sustainable world for future generations. In 2012 she was awarded the Southern Cross Young Achievers Entrepreneurship Award and in 2013 was a Tasmanian finalist in the Young Australian of the Year Awards.

Sophie Muller – TAS Climate Change Office Sophie Muller is the Director of the Tasmanian Climate Change Office in the Department of Premier and Cabinet. She leads the Tasmanian Government response to climate change including policy and projects focusing on addressing the State’s emissions, the transition to a low carbon economy and responding to the impacts of climate change through adaptation. Sophie is a graduate of the University of Tasmania with a Master of Public Policy and a Bachelor of Arts. She has worked in the climate change field for the past five years and has held roles across government in tourism, health and education.

Jaimee Narracott and Riley Bianchi – Huonville High School (Zayed Huon Energy Futures Team) Jaimee and Riley are the student-leaders of the Zayed Huon Energy Futures Team at Huonville High School. This team is a group of students working to make a difference in their school and the community. In 2017 the student efforts led them to win the prestigious Zayed Future Energy Prize which is an international award that recognises and supports innovation in renewable energy and sustainability. The team also led Huonville High School in taking the Australian Youth Climate Collations Repower Pledge. Climate Leaders Conference Keynote Speakers, Presenters and Performers

Zoe Douglas-Kinghorne and Niamh Clearly-

Schofield – Performance

Zoe and her Mum wrote the original song called “The Way of The Tiger (Don’t let the Tarkine go). It was inspired by beautiful Tarkine Wilderness in Northern Tasmania and with its catchy tune, will hope to have everyone sing along to the chorus by the end.

Leah Page – Education for Sustainability Tasmania

Leah Page is the Facilitator of Education for Sustainability Tasmania, a United Nations Regional Centre of Expertise. Leah's role is to support this network of inspired and

inspiring sustainability educators and practitioners. Leah has over 15 years supporting community participation in environmental management including designing and delivering education activities. Leah is a PhD Candidate at the University of Tasmania in the College of Arts Law and Education (Faculty of Education) exploring the ways context frames and shapes education approaches to marine litter in Tasmania; and is currently teaching pre-service teachers at UTAS about Education for Sustainability in the curriculum. Corey Peterson – Education for Sustainability Tasmania Corey Peterson worked in Antarctica from 1992-2008 as a scientist, lab manager and marine science technician. From

1998-2009 Corey also worked at MacKillop College where he worked with students and staff to install the first photovoltaic system on a Tasmanian school, a 165,000 litre

stormwater collection system, four solar hotwater systems, food garden and energy efficiency improvements. He has worked at the University of Tasmania since 2010 as the Sustainability Manager charged with improving sustainability performance in energy, transport, carbon emissions, built environment, resource recovery, water, procurement and biodiversity. He also served on the Board of Sustainable Living Tasmania for ten years (five as President), is a graduate of the Tasmanian Leaders Program and has Masters Degrees in Environmental Science and Public Administration.

Jaimee Narracott – Performance

Jaimee Narracott is a year 10 student at Huonville High School with a passion for music. Jaimee, at the Climate Leaders Conference 2018 will welcome and farewell us with some delightful and charming tunes. Gustaaf Hallegraeff - UTAS Gustaaf Hallegraeff is a Professor at the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies of the University of Tasmania in Australia. He worked on a wide range of issues from shellfish toxins, climate change, and ship’s ballast water to fish-kills, and is a winner of the 2004 Eureka Prize for Environmental Research. Changes in ocean climate directly impact on Australian human society via sea-level rise, extreme weather events (floods and bush fires) and seafood security. The unprecedented speed of change in temperature is of greatest concern: while fast growing small creatures such as plankton can easily adapt, bigger and slower growing organisms (including humans) are the most vulnerable. There will be winners (more tuna in Tasmania) and losers from climate change (cold water seaweeds dying off). Climate Leaders Conference Mentors

Jo Dean – Launceston Jo Dean is part of the Gentle Footprints Permaculture. Sustainability is central

to all the activities we do at Gentle Footprints. We work with schools and community groups to find creative and practical solutions to key problems faced by humanity. We empower people to take action to reduce waste, by working with new Australian communities to enhance sewing skills by using recycled fabric to make reusable, washable bags to replace single use plastic bags. We work with women groups in Fiji to develop markets for sustainably produced natural woven World Fair Trade Organisation certified handicrafts that highlight and value traditional skills and conserve and enhance the growing of native plants to reduce poverty and sustain livelihoods. We host Bachelor of Science - Global Challenges intern students from Monash University and work beside community groups in Fiji to find creative solutions to waste problems in villages, to protect bird and turtle populations in the marine environment. Helping people to grow their own food in urban and rural environments by maintaining soil fertility, reducing waste and reducing emissions is an important part of the diverse range of actions we implement to encourage Climate Action and reduce our collective eco-footprint. Mark Blaxall – Hobart Mark is very proud to say that his 12 years’ experience in Science and Sustainability education has resulted in meeting this Sir David Attenborough, an inspiration to us all. Marks enthusiasm for engaging people in Science and Sustainability, while it probably won’t result in anyone getting to meet Sir David Attenborough, hopefully will inspire people to become involved in projects that involve positive changes to our world. As Sir David says, ‘what humans do over the next 50 years will determine the fate of all life on our planet Earth’. Sietske Hunn – Hobart Sietske has a teaching background. Whilst living in Shark Bay WA for the last 9 years she has had many experiences collaborating with young people. For 2 years Sietske taught students up to year 9 in Visual Arts. She was also very active with the Shark Bay Arts Council who were very keen to involve all ages in the community in their various arts projects. We helped to expose the youth to circus skills, photography, art exhibitions and video making just to name a few activities. In the last few months we convinced the local supermarkets to go Plastic bag free, joined the Boomerang Bags movement and started an Op-Shop which generated enough money to enable generous donations to local groups in need. Zara Marais – Hobart Zara is a professional environmental scientist with experience in conservation, policy development, and environmental impact assessment, who is currently working on a PhD at the University of Tasmania. Her PhD topic crosses several fields: environmental economics, ecology, entomology, social science, and agriculture, but essentially it’s about finding new ways to value the role that trees and shrubs play on farms. Zara aiming to quantify the many ecosystem services that different types of trees provide (erosion control, carbon sequestration, shelter, amenity, biodiversity etc.) and explain how these services translate to costs and benefits for farmers. This includes assessing how much trees contribute to the long-term sustainability and viability of the farm - in terms of its resilience to disturbances such as climate change, extreme weather events etc. Outside Zara’s PhD, she has a strong interest in environmental education and youth mentoring and is hoping to continuing building experience in these areas.

Climate Leaders Conference Mentors

Nel Smit – Hobart Nel is an Education Strategist for Greening Australia, based at the Sustainability Learning Centre at Mt Nelson. Nel’s focus has been on nature based education supporting teachers in developing a sense of place. She is currently working with five schools on ‘Bushrangers’, linked to the large scale restoration project in the Midlands Biodiversity Hot Spot. Nel is also working on Energy Wise, a partnership with TasNetworks developing an energy hub at the Sustainability Learning Centre and working with the students at Huonville High School on the development of their Zayed Future Energy Prize Project.

Toby Thorpe – Huon Valley Toby is a year 11 student with a dual enrolment between Hobart College and Huonville High School. Toby’s passion is achieving climate justice. Toby is the Youth Facilitator at the Education for Sustainability Tasmania, a Schools Mentor at the Australian Youth Climate Collation and a student leader at Huonville High School for their Zayed Future Energy Prize project. His focus is developing and inspiring youth leadership on climate change and forming community collaboration to ensure a safe climate future for future generations.

Mille Rooney – Hobart Millie coordinates the Sustainability Integration Program for Students at UTAS which provides student with the opportunity to experience working in a sustainability team through internships. Millie also works with a national alliance, A24, which is an alliance of unions, NGOs, enviro groups and social advocacy organisations who have been working together for the past two years to develop a vision for what a better Australia might look like, and how we might get there. A key part of this has been uniting different organisations together and establishing how we can speak more strongly together.

Zoe Douglas-Kinghorne – Hobart Zoe is a university student in her final year of a Bachelor of Arts. Inspired by climate leaders such as Laura Sykes and Kandi Mossett, who she saw speak at Power Shift 2017, Zoe loves to communicate climate science to young people. She is a schools mentor at the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, where she wants to assist young people to carry out their dreams and formulate strong plans for a safer climate. Zoe is a committed volunteer at the Australian Youth Climate Collation, Australia’s largest youth-led organisation which puts young people at the forefront of such a powerful movement.

Margaret Steadman – Hobart

Margaret Steadman is a climate and sustainable living advocate. While executive officer of Sustainable Living Tasmania, she helped households and communities understand how they can make a big difference to the environment – from embracing energy efficiency to considering low-carbon footprint end of life options. Since her retirement she is still involved in building community resilience and response to climate change. She is a founding member of Climate Action Hobart and the West Hobart Environment Network and a Council member of the Australian Conservation Foundation. She was the Hobart coordinator for the global People’s Climate March in the lead-up to the 2015 Paris Climate Summit, and has organised local lobbying of banks to divest of climate-damaging investments. Margaret has led community initiatives from bushfire-ready forums and ‘Draught Busters’ DIY home improvement to a local suburban walking map to encourage sustainable transport. She also volunteers in the Migrant Resource Centre's refugee program and the Source Community Wholefoods Co-op and is a keen food gardener and electric bike rider.

Climate Leaders Conference Mentors

Sandy Murray – Launceston Sandy Murray calls herself a food justice activist and is passionate about the right of communities to grow, sell, and eat and have access to healthy food. She is a qualified Dietitian and works at the University of Tasmania in Launceston teaching food and nutrition within the Bachelor of Health Science. She started her climate change journey back in 2009 when she took part in Al Gore’s Climate Leaders training program. Since this time she has helped facilitate the start of an ‘Education For Sustainability’ network at the University, has supported Tasmania becoming a United Nations Regional

Centre of Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development and is a member of the UTAS Sustainability Committee. Sandy recently took part in the Climate and Health Alliance (CAHA) training program last year. When Sandy isn’t teaching at Uni she is advocating for food justice and supporting low income communities in Launceston where she can. Sandy recognises that her strength is in advocating for a fair food system and that is what she does. She recently started a PhD and is focussing on food insecurity among University students. John Hunter – Hobart John Hunter is an oceanographer working in an emeritus position at the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, which is based in the University of Tasmania. His current interests are the sea-level

rise induced by climate change, and the response of Antarctic ice shelf cavities to global warming. His interest in sea-level rise was initially stimulated in the mid-1990s by his work (with others) on the historic sea-level mark at the Isle of the Dead, Port Arthur, which indicated where sea level was in 1841. This was one of the first such marks struck anywhere in the world for the scientific investigation of sea level. Recent work has involved investigations of sea-level rise in Australia, the U.S., and in the Indian Ocean and Pacific regions, and the way in which this rise increases the frequency and likelihood of flooding events. He has a keen interest in seeing that the science of climate change is accurately communicated, not distorted by the so-called "climate sceptics" and is appropriately incorporated into public policy. Chris Harries – Hobart Chris is an environmental educator working in the non-government sector and has extensive experience in managing award-winning sustainable energy, energy conservation and behaviour change programs. He has been a leader in fostering the development of ‘sustainable living’ communities in Tasmania and in the implementation of suburban rooftop solar projects. He is a trained Home Energy Assessor and is the author of the ever popular Tasmanian Home Energy Guide. He has participated in Australian Government and State Government sponsored sustainability projects and recently spent two years assisting a provincial empowerment program in Papua New Guinea.

Carol Bristow – Hobart

Carol has taught in Tasmanian public schools for 40 years and during that

time Environmental Education has been a key part of her teaching practice.

Her classes started setting up recycling systems in the 1980s and over the years she has worked with her classes to set up school gardens, composting

and worm farms, energy use monitors, energy saving practices in schools,

setting up water tanks and solar systems and raising money for protection of

endangered animals.

Climate Leaders Conference Mentors

Larissa Giddings – Hobart Larissa is a lover of all things wild. With a passionate interest in how everything works together in an ecosystem, from the tiniest microbe to our global biosphere! Larissa loves to enhance and enrich our experiences in nature, seeking to investigate processes both natural and synthesized and learn how we reconnect with nature. Larissa loves to look at ways of behavioural change, learn new ways of doing daily tasks in a changing climate and environment to work and live with natural processes as best we can in our modern society.