Antinuclear

Young voters will judge Gillard on Climate Change action

The new Prime Minister has an opportunity to win voters with a fresh approach to climate change. Last year, 97.5 per cent of the 37,000 young people who voted in Youth Decide, a national youth referendum organised by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, supported stronger cuts in emissions than what was then offered by the ALP…

…At the next election, for the first time, more than one in five voters will be of Generation Y. Young people’s future, and Julia Gillard’s future, will depend on her ability to implement effective climate change solutions.

Gen Y to Julia: Take a bold stance for our climate, Sydney Morning Herald, from Australian Youth Climate Coalition, JOEL DIGNAM, June 28, 2010, Julia Gillard can be more than Australia’s first female Prime Minister: she can be our first prime minister to take the necessary steps to tackle carbon pollution.

Now Julia Gillard is in a perfect space to take prompt action to position the ALP as the only major party with a serious climate policy. In doing so, she can give Australians the sense of her leadership that they will need if she is to win an election.

How can she do this? Gillard can introduce in the life of the next Parliament, an ambitious, visionary proposal that turns around our still rising pollution, makes business take responsibility for their pollution, makes clean energy cheaper and promotes investment in renewable energy and sustainable transport.

This will not only reduce Australia’s greenhouse pollution, it will also create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country. Recent modelling commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Australian Commercial Trades Union indicates that strong action on climate change can create an additional 770, 000 jobs across Australia.

Additionally, Gillard needs to explain the urgency of the climate change situation……..The new Prime Minister has an opportunity to win voters with a fresh approach to climate change. Last year, 97.5 per cent of the 37,000 young people who voted in Youth Decide, a national youth referendum organised by the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, supported stronger cuts in emissions than what was then offered by the ALP. Recently, we have seen young people move away from both major parties in the absence of a climate change policy. At the next election, for the first time, more than one in five voters will be of Generation Y. Young people’s future, and Julia Gillard’s future, will depend on her ability to implement effective climate change solutions.Climate Change | Australian Youth Climate Coalition

June 30, 2010 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming, energy, politics, solar, wind | Australia, carbon, climate change, climate change - global warming, energy, renewable, solar, wind