About the Women's Climate Congress
NEWSFLASH! Face-to-face National Congress of Women deferred
Due to ongoing COVID lockdowns and travel restrictions in several states, including the ACT, the Women’s Climate Congress has taken the decision to defer our face-to-face National Congress of Women.
Instead, we will host a 1-day online event at the end of November and subsequent online/ face-to-face events in 2022.
Further details are on the National Congress of Women website
And for some inspiration on the importance of bringing women together -
Watch a video clip of First Nations leader Dr Mary Graham speaking about the need to rebalance our western institutions to allow full collaboration of women
Due to ongoing COVID lockdowns and travel restrictions in several states, including the ACT, the Women’s Climate Congress has taken the decision to defer our face-to-face National Congress of Women.
Instead, we will host a 1-day online event at the end of November and subsequent online/ face-to-face events in 2022.
Further details are on the National Congress of Women website
And for some inspiration on the importance of bringing women together -
Watch a video clip of First Nations leader Dr Mary Graham speaking about the need to rebalance our western institutions to allow full collaboration of women
Who we are
The Women's Climate Congress is a network of women from all walks of life and political views. We have come together now because we cannot stay silent while the unfolding climate emergency threatens the future of our children and all life on Earth. We will work with open minds to inspire mediation and collaboration across political parties to overcome current roadblocks to a just and sustainable future.
We accept the scientific consensus expressed in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports and incorporated into the Paris Accord. As beneficiaries of the industrial age, we suspend judgment on the leadership decisions that have brought us here. Our mission is future-focused and will be a catalyst for united and creative change to restore climate balance and a renewed commitment to care for life on Earth.
We believe that it is time for women to lead the cultural change needed because their leadership style can help rebalance our currently stuck system towards compassion, inclusion and collaboration. To bring women’s voices to the fore, we will design processes that suit women’s schedules and ways of working together – through local groups, workshops and national congress as required. Through these gatherings, we will develop and model principles for the cultural shifts we seek to prioritise nurture of life and custodianship of the Earth in policy decisions. We will progressively promote these principles across all genders and parties to build trust that collaborative processes can serve the common good, and allow mediation of currently blocked policy pathways.
Background
This initiative is based on a discussion paper, Independent mediation for united action on climate change, first circulated by Janet Salisbury in late 2019. The paper was inspired by the actions of women in 1915 in response to the unprecedented suffering and loss of young lives in WW1. It also grew out of many years of leading a culture of conversation in Canberra, as well as creatively giving voice to citizen concerns with A Chorus of Women.
The paper proposes that to break the deadlock, we need thinking minds from all perspectives to come together to consider the issue of climate change. Such a national (and indeed world) ‘thinking organ’ could offer to the currently opposing political forces an opportunity to collaborate in finding a just and sustainable way to stabilise the climate and secure a safe future for our children without renouncing their overall convictions.
Find out more about the Women's Climate Congress
Read the discussion paper by Janet Salisbury which was the catalyst for the formation of WCC
See our Vision, values and commitment statement
Read an account of our inaugural meetings on the Events page
Watch the video recordings of our online conversation on 13 and 27 May 2020, with Dr Janet Salisbury, Lyn Stephens and others :
Watch WCC Conversation #1 (13 May 2020)
Watch WCC Conversation #2 (27 May 2020)
Follow our 2021 Women's Conversations online series
Follow our News, Events, Advocacy and Resources pages
Read about our allies and collaborators
Follow the planning for our first National Congress of Women to be held at the end of November 2021
Read how to Get involved
Our logo
August 2020 — we are proud to launch our logo ! It combines original artwork by Rhiannon Glasser and graphic design by Helen Ferguson (artspirit).
The overall image is a flower. This relates to our vision for the nurture of life to be at the heart of all important decisions. We also want women’s voices to bloom, for individuals to cultivate their strengths, and for conversations and connections to grow in the rich soil of communities.
At the heart of the logo flower is the globe – our precious planet Earth. The natural world is threatened by the changing climate, and the vast weight of scientific opinion tells us we humans are bringing about this change. Our congress of women wishes to protect the planet by bringing the climate back into balance. We advocate for nurture of life and care for the Earth to lie at the heart of all important decisions so that today’s children and future generations have the opportunity to wonder at the beauty of the world and marvel at its diversity and complexity.
The petals of the flower are women. They are of different shapes, sizes and colours. They face in different directions but they are all standing on the Earth. This reflects the diversity that we aspire to in our membership, our common grounding, and our joint responsibility to protect the natural environment for future generations.
Photo credit: Inaugural women's meeting photos by Danny Pratt