FINALLY IT’S A CLIMATE EMERGENCY

HOBART City Council has finally declared its climate emergency after a month of aldermen and councillors arguing about it.

A full council meeting last night voted 8-3 to declare a climate and biodiversity emergency, joining the more than 600 other jurisdictions around the world which have also done so.

Alderman Jeff Briscoe was the one to vote to reinstate the word “emergency” after his amendment last week removed it. The public gallery was packed last night.

HOBART has finally declared a climate emergency.

After about a month of back and forth with walkouts and amendments, the Hobart City Council last night voted 8-3 to declare a global climate and biodiversity emergency.

They joined more than 600 other jurisdictions around the world who have also called it an emergency.

Council voted largely to support Councillor Bill Harvey’s original motion that first went before aldermen on May 19.

Surprisingly, Alderman Jeff Briscoe, who heavily amended the motion at last week’s planning committee meeting to remove the word “emergency”, last night voted to reinstate it.

It was standing room only as more than 50 climate change activists packed council chambers at Hobart Town Hall to watch elected members debate the motion.

They carried signs and stuffed animals, dressed up in costumes and broke into ferocious applause when elected members spoke supporting the declaration of an emergency.

“I bet dinosaurs didn’t believe in climate change, now they’re dead,” one sign read.

Cr Harvey said using the word emergency was about leadership and added intensity to what council needed to do.

“Calling it an emergency is telling the truth about what’s happening around the globe,” he said.

“Council has a good track record on dealing with climate change — we’re recognised at an international level by the United Nations.”

Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said climate change was a huge threat to Hobart through bushfires and severe weather events.

“It’s about working with our allies nationally and around the world to reduce the impact of climate change and how it threatens our community,” she said.

“We need to stand in solidarity with governments and millions of people around the world.”

Council will now write to Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman and Prime Minister Scott Morrison urging them to also declare a climate and biodiversity emergency.

The topic had been hotly debated since it was first raised as an urgency action on May 19 when three aldermen — Briscoe, Damon Thomas and Simon Behrakis — walked out of the meeting to stop it going to a vote.