Western Bay-wide Climate Action Festival this month

The 2023 Climate Action Festival clothes swap.

This month’s Climate Action Festival will feature events across the Western Bay of Plenty.

The festival will unite environmental advocates, local leaders, and community members for a week of educational workshops, inspiring talks and engaging activities focused on sustainability and climate action.

Designed to raise awareness and inspire positive change, the festival aims to celebrate those doing their bit to fight climate change while empowering attendees to contribute to a greener and more sustainable future.

This year’s Climate Action Festival theme is Our Future and focuses on climate adaptation and youth engagement. It emphasises enhancing resilience to climate impacts through sustainable practices and the vital role of young people in climate action through education, as well as youth-led initiatives.

Project co-ordinator Milly McHardie of Envirohub Bay of Plenty says the festival is about sharing positive stories from real people across the district and engaging with the community through a wide variety of events to highlight the different ways we can all take action.

“It’s what we eat, what we wear, how we travel and what we buy,” she says. “These can all be climate action.”

The festival includes an array of events throughout the week, including an eco-conscious market, a second-hand clothing sale, local eatery promotions, panel discussions, a climate transition planning workshop, kids’ activities across the local libraries, a clothing and plant swap, movie screenings, and more.

Climate change can cause feelings of fear and defeat, and requires a whole-of-community response, says Milly.

The inaugural 2023 festival was born out of discussions between Te Whatu Ora, Tauranga City Council, Western Bay of Plenty District Council, Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Priority One and BECA, with Envirohub at the helm to facilitate planning and delivery.

The original vision of a series of free to low-cost events to inspire, motivate and uplift the local community through celebrating local climate action has been further built upon this year.

The larger and more diverse offering of events is made possible due to input from the University of Waikato, Inspiring Stories, and Aurecon, who have joined the 2023 founding organisations, as well as support from the Tauranga Western Bay Community Event Fund which is supporting the festival with a $11,068 grant.

The fund is a partnership between local funders Acorn Foundation, BayTrust, TECT, Tauranga City Council and Western Bay of Plenty District Council with the core purpose of supporting community-led events and those that encourage free or low-cost participation.

BayTrust chief executive Alastair Rhodes says the festival is a chance for the community to come together and share positive stories and skills to help build community resilience for climate change impacts in the future.

“This festival helps people learn how easy it can be to take climate action in their own lives and what surprising additional benefits may arise from doing so,” he says.

Jodie Rickard, Western Bay of Plenty’s community and strategic relationship manager, says the festival is a chance for the community to learn about the small changes they can make to take action and learn about the work being done by locals to combat the effects of climate change.

“There are so many ways to take action, and the festival is offering a wide variety of events that highlight different methods,” she says. “This means most people can find an action that will resonate with them and benefit them and the environment.”

For more information about the festival that runs from September 14-20 and all the events throughout the week, visit Envirohub Bay of Plenty’s Facebook event page.