Member Spotlight: Australian Parents for Climate Action

For this cohort blog, we have interviewed the CEO of Australian Parents for Climate Action (Parents for Climate), Nic Seton! Nic joined Australian Parents for Climate Action in 2021 after fifteen years of campaign management experience.

Parents for Climate engages and empowers Australian parents to advocate for climate action. The organisation provides the tools and resources for parents and families to make a dent in climate action. It runs various projects to advocate for policy change, specifically targeting a transition to renewable energies in the school system. 

During this segment, we talk about how and why parents' role in the fight against climate is critical, and also, the schools’ transition to solar and battery-powered electricity with support from the Parents for Climate team!

1.What was the inspiration for the founding of Australian Parents for Climate Action?

In 2019 there was a real wake-up call for all those parents of students who have been striking in a global wave, really inspired by leaders like Greta Thunberg. It made us question what our role is in this and how we can support the young people who are out there. Six mums across Australia connected online and said you know what, we need a parent climate movement and set this platform up through social media. 

It snowballed from there and began Australian Parents for Climate Action. It started working on campaigns to get the federal and state governments to do more for climate solutions and it’s grown to 17,000 plus active members and achieved a whole range of wins and helped shape climate policy to date.

2.What tools and resources are available for parents to act on climate and how can parents get involved?

Parents are incredibly powerful, but they're also incredibly busy. So there’s a tension between how much a parent can do and how much they have the capacity for. No matter what we’re dealing with, there’s always a next step that parents can take. It might be something as simple as switching out something in their lives that will have a better impact on the environment, for instance, using more efficient appliances at home, getting off the gas in the home, or considering more carbon-friendly transport. 

There are conversations they can be part of and connect with local groups. We have local groups all across the country and connect with other parents online through the online spaces we run.

Then they can actually be an advocate, be a champion for their children’s climate. To advocate for the climate our kids are going to inherit in this critical decade when young and future generations aren’t currently powerful enough to have a say. That movement really falls down to parents right now, and it’s part of what parenting means today. And so, using our voice to speak to electoral representatives is key to really shifting the needle.

3.What role do parents play in our fight against climate change?

I would say that parents are playing a role that is bigger than just themselves. All of the young people in Australia are too young to have a say or frankly, it would be unfair to burden them with a problem like this.

They’re counting on us. Their future prosperity and the brilliant and exciting opportunities that come with climate action will only be there if we champion this and put in that extra time.

4.How are you finding the uptake for battery and solar-powered electricity at schools across Australia?

We have been running the Solar Our Schools and Early-child hood Centres campaign for a few years, and in its first phase, we had a lot of public support. We had over 12,000 parents on our petition to state and federal governments. And that has turned into some really impressive outcomes as well.

For example, in Tasmania, public schools have received support for solar and battery installations across all schools. Western Australia has delivered a really impressive pilot, looking at solar and battery installations across a range of different schools. And NSW, has gone even further and not just run a range of more than 70 pilot schools but has actually opened up all public schools sites, all 2200 public schools sites, for tendering on the installation of climate solutions.

This includes solar and battery partnerships with private installers and public assets to create a commercial and financial opportunity for both state assets and businesses that want to drive the solution, which happens to be the biggest solar tender in Australia’s history. It’s exciting to see what happens when we start to think about our existing infrastructure as opportunities!

5.What current projects are you most passionate about at this time? And, what are you hoping to achieve in the next few months?

We’re really excited about how the wins we’ve seen demonstrated in schools could extend and be applied to early childhood centres. We want to see early childhood make this electrical transition, as it’s a sector with enormous value to our communities but also faces significant overheads in cost. We want to make sure that industry can access cost-of-living solutions that are climate solutions by reducing the cost of energy when energy costs haven’t gone up this high for a very long time. I think that would be an absolute no-brainer for any community that wants to see its community assets supported. 

We’re also excited about using the power of parents' voices to improve practices and ensure that industries are doing the right thing by our kids and not greenwashing over the top of it. And so we’re excited to participate in conversations around greenwashing as well.

6.What have you found the most beneficial aspect of being part of the Subak Accelerator so far?

Subak has been very available and accommodating in introducing my team and I to experts across the country in various areas.

Some of those people I have had terrific follow-up conversations with and they have added a lot of insights and perspectives into our organisation that I wouldn’t otherwise have.

Day to day, we are essentially trying to build this ship of hope out of scratch, and having those contributions from experienced and expert providers at our fingertips is really valuable.

7.Anything else….

In the hope that some of this audience will inevitably be parents themselves, I would love them to know that it doesn’t matter if you don’t have much time and it doesn’t matter if your plate is full. What matters is that we are taking action, not every second of the day and not feeling bad about it, but making some steps towards it and feeling good about that because every action that we take is a vote for the future that we want for our kids. And climate action is about protecting the ones we love.