Resources

Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) is a group of former fire and emergency services leaders who, through centuries of combined experience, knew that Australia was under-resourced for the 2019-20 bushfire season.

Informed by the science, they were compelled to come together and call on the Government to act on climate change, the driving force behind Australia’s catastrophic fire conditions.

Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) formed in April 2019. ELCA wanted to meet with the Federal Government to address how to better prepare Australians for worsening bushfire conditions, fuelled by climate change. The group wrote to key politicians and released a joint statement to the media.

Through crowd-funding, ELCA was able to launch publicly and print a joint statement in mainstream media. The group has been a consistent and powerful voice in the media, pushing the Federal Government to act on climate change and calling out its lack of leadership.

Prior to the onset of the 2019-20 bushfire season, Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) called for better resourcing of our fire and emergency services, to cope with the elevated risks associated with climate change. Read the joint statement here.

Throughout the 2019-20 bushfire crisis, Greg Mullins and the Emergency Leaders were instrumental in calling out the lack of national coordination and leadership from the Federal Government and directed the national conversation towards the key driver of the bushfire conditions – climate change.

Now, ELCA is pushing ahead with a National Bushfire & Climate Change Conference and calling for the development of a national framework to better prepare Australia’s disaster recovery and response to extreme weather. Communities are still reeling from the impacts of the bushfire season, and climate change must be built into the recovery plan.

Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) is a Climate Council initiative and is community-funded. ELCA relies on individual donations.

If you’d like to support Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA), click here to make a donation. If you can’t contribute financially, you can still support ELCA by signing up to the mailing list or sharing our video now.

Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) is supported by the Climate Council, which is Australia’s leading independent climate communications organisation. For more information about the Climate Council, visit the website here.

Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA) is a project supported by the Climate Council and led by former senior Australian fire and emergency service leaders. We are fully independent and funded by donations from people like you.

Every member of ELCA generously volunteers their time and receives no financial compensation for their work with ELCA.

Donations to ELCA fund our diverse campaign activities, such as hosting the 2020 National Bushfire and Climate Summit and publishing reports such as the Australian Bushfire and Climate Plan.

If you’d like to make a donation to support our vital work, please click here.

The extremely hot, dry conditions experienced throughout the 2019-20 summer were driven by climate change. For more information about how climate change affects bushfires, watch this Climate Council video.

Climate change is driven by burning coal, oil and gas. These are fossil fuels, and they are contributing to the dangerous rise in global greenhouse gas emissions. For more information about climate change causes, impacts and solutions, head to the Climate Council website.

Visit the Emergency Leaders for Climate Action Resources Hub, or the Climate Council Bushfires and Climate Change Information Hub.

In an emergency, call Triple Zero (000). For information about bushfires near you, contact your state or territory emergency services agency:

• ACT: ACT Fire & Rescue
• NSW: New South Wales Rural Fire Service | Fire & Rescue NSW
• NT: Northern Territory Fire and Rescue Service
• QLD: Queensland Rural Fire Service | Queensland Fire and Emergency Services
• SA: South Australian Country Fire Service
• TAS: Tasmania Fire Service
• VIC: Victorian Country Fire Authority | Metropolitan Fire Brigade
• WA: Western Australian Department of Fire and Emergency Services

Regardless of where you live, always have a bushfire strategy in place. The ABC has compiled this list with helpful information about what to do before, during and after a bushfire – Plan for an emergency: Bushfire.