Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

The purpose of our project is to tackle emissions from the Australian energy sector by proposing positive, shovel-ready solutions that can be implemented by all political parties at both the state and national level.

The project was formed by the staff team at Australian Parents for Climate Action in response to the economic discourse surrounding the covid pandemic and the need to invest in economic opportunities to stimulate growth. Both the need to invest in reforming the national energy market and the opportunity to stimulate green growth with multiple social benefits was clear. And so the campaign was launched in July 2020. 

Our project is to campaign for the Australian Federal and State/Territory governments to work together to Solar Our Schools, by funding solar and batteries for every school and early childhood centre in Australia (with means-tested grants for privately-owned schools and for-profit early learning centres). 

Solar Our Schools will:

- Create at least 6,870 renewable energy jobs in all regions of Australia.
- Slash school energy bills which frees up more funds for learning resources - saving large schools $114,000 in energy bills per year and small schools $12,700 per year (Beyond Zero Emissions).
- Save millions of tonnes of carbon emissions per year.

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

By displacing fossil fuel energy usage by implementing distributed energy resources in schools and early childhood centres.

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Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

Our project serves two direct beneficiaries, as well as a range of marginalised groups indirectly.

1. Australian women: largely second in dominance and influence in public policy making. Our project inspires, engages and empowers women, particularly mothers to effect change by supporting and realising our policy proposal. Their voice is frequently marginalised through structural and cultural barriers to inclusion.

2. Australian children: unable to participate in democratic process and largely disempowered in climate policy making. Our project will result in direct benefit to all Australian children who attend schools - with means-testing for priority and weighting in favour of lower socio-economic areas and demographics. This will result in direct education benefits through access to clean technology in an educational context, as well as increased resources for the education sector at a school by school level.

3. Regional, remote and aboriginal communities: largely forgotten in infrastructure investment and national debate on climate change. Our project will disproportionately benefit regional and remote communities, which includes all remote Indigenous communities with educational facilities. Solar Our Schools will provide a step change in energy access, resilience and emissions reductions in remote areas, by creating the option for micro-grids, significant local generation and storage, as well as the removal of harmful diesel generators and reliance on various forms of fossil fuels in those communities.

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