Pasifika Climate Leadership Workshop - 2011

A slightly awkward ask... Less than three years ago we launched 350 Aotearoa, the New Zealand branch of 350.org. Since then we have been growing fast. At the beginning we wanted to concentrate on asking you to get involved in action, not on asking for donations. And you came through. You have gotten behind this movement, got involved in actions and made us what we are today. Together wefve produced results. The movement has lead two of the most widespread global days of action in the planetfs history. New Zealand played an instrumental role in building this global movement. Youfve come through in such a big way that today the opportunities that youfve helped create are just too big to pass up... so now we are asking you for money to https://www.givealittle.co.nz/org/350NZ/donate""contribute to 350. During James Hansenfs recent tour of New Zealand he emphasised the importance of 350.org in mobilising people like you towards a clean energy future:? g350.org I think is the most effective way for us to communicate the science of climate change to the rest of the world. But we are up against well financed oppositionch Dr. James Hansen. We want to keep being effective and build on our global days of action. We also want to develop more local projects that really target solutions to climate change here in New Zealand. Over this coming year we want to: Use our global day of action, eMoving Planetf , to demonstrate the urgency to move away from fossil fuels and towards a cleaner energy future. Ramp up our Solarsaver project - working with local councils throughout NZ to implement solar hot water projects. Implement a campaign for the NZ November elections to get politicians committing to urgent action on climate change. Scale up the movement by delivering more grassroots youth climate leadership workshops, by running sessions in schools and building our online community. Deliver youth climate leadership workshops in Pacific Island nations and work to amplify their voice across the world. All these projects take resources. We are very careful stewards of our funds. We havenft got much (compared to our gwell financed oppositionh in the fossil fuel industry), but wefve achieved a lot - with only 1-2 dedicated part-time staff over the past two years. We donft own any big assets (in fact we have only just purchased a stapler for our office), and we each use our own personal computers for our work because we are committed to what we do. The money we do have we pour into organising events and building up the capacity of the movement?mostly into finding more young people in more places to lead this fight. With minimal funding we ran a 350 Youth Climate Leadership workshop last month. Herefs how valuable one of our younger participants thought it was: gNow I feel I have the confidence and know-how to get out there in my region and really make a differenceh ? Aidan McLean, 16, Auckland Anyway?herefs the bottom line: we most of all want you to be involved, to be leading actions and organising events and shaking up the world. Thatfs far more important to us than money. But if you do have any money to spare, we could make really good use of it. We know things might be tough, so wefre only asking you to give what you can either through ""http://www.350.org.nz/get-involved/donate-to-350#get_regular""regular giving or ""https://www.givealittle.co.nz/org/350NZ/donate"">one-off donation every bit counts. Wefre a registered charity, so itfll be a tax-deductible donation too. If wefre going to turn climate change around, we have lots of work still to do here in New Zealand, and we need to translate local action into global commitment. There's no guarantee we're going to win every battle, but with our future on the line, we're definitely going to make it interesting. Please ""https://www.givealittle.co.nz/org/350NZ/donate""click here to go straight to the page to donate or ""http://www.350.org.nz/get-involved/donate-to-350"">visit www.350.org.nz for more info Many thanks, Aaron Packard - 350.org Pacific Co-ordinator Julia Capon - Community Co-ordinator and Fundraiser On behalf of 350 Aotearoa