The role of community organisations in tackling climate change will be the focus of this year’s Strengthening Communities Hui, which starts on Tuesday 14th September.

The annual conference brings together three networks: Environment Hubs Aotearoa, the Community Energy Network and the Zero Waste Network, who connect more than one hundred community organisations and thousands of workers.

Minister for Climate Change James Shaw will deliver the keynote address on Friday, September 17.

Executive Officer of the Zero Waste Network, Dorte Wray, said the organisations look forward to hearing from James Shaw about how the government sees the role of community enterprises in delivering on our climate commitments.

“The three networks work on the front lines of our climate and ecological crises, taking action to reduce emissions and increase community resilience to climate change impacts every day,” she said.

“We are working to make a zero waste, zero carbon circular economy, limiting resource extraction and keeping valuable resources in use as long as possible. We work on renewable and resilient local energy solutions for communities to eliminate fossil fuel use. We work on regenerating degraded and damaged ecosystems, building healthy warm homes, and creating community projects for real sustainability and a just transition.”

“Our Hui will help the three networks maximise our impact by working collectively.”

“We see climate change as intimately connected with other issues, including colonisation, inequality, energy hardship, waste, pollution and devastating biodiversity loss. We have practical, real-world solutions that address these issues, and we want to expand our relationships with other groups and individuals who want to see this kind of transformative change,” said Ms Wray.

The event is held over four days, and this year, as a result of Covid-19, will be entirely online. It is free to attend, and we encourage anyone who is interested to register for sessions. Some sessions may be limited to network members only.

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