How can we move from changing individual behaviour to changing a system?

A lot of people factor the climate into their lifestyles: choosing ethical brands, using public transport, buying second-hand clothes, eating less meat.

Meanwhile, governments can open a mine or a solar farm with the stroke of a pen.

This not only shows the importance of voting - it points to how people can influence a system by working together.

At this event you'll meet three inspiring leaders who are influencing governments by building communities.

Eezu Tan

Eezu is a climate activist, start-up operator and theatre-maker. By day, she works in the climate-tech space and has helped teams to restore nature. By night, she writes and directs plays to share stories that connect us. She runs a grassroots climate action community (@climatewriters) where she brings people together to write letters to politicians every month. Overall, she is passionate about forging a more sustainable, equitable and inclusive world.

Rob Chan

Rob is a Chapter Captain at Parents for Climate. Every month, Rob and other climate parents gather in community and climate action by letter writing to politicians and press, responding to government consultation and network to bring more parent power to the movement, creating an upswell of ambition and accelerate adoption of climate solutions. A nationally registered charity that represents over 22,000 parents, grandparents and carers from across Australia, welcoming everyone from across the political spectrum and from varied socio-economic positions. Parents for Climate is non-partisan and driven by a safe climate for kids to thrive.

For his profession, Rob is the Head of Strategy & Analytics at Turo Australia, the world's largest car sharing marketplace whose mission is to put the world's 1.5 billion cars to better use. He’s an expert in multi-sided tech marketplaces, and has worn many hats in mobility and driving adoption of innovative, convenient, safe and equitable transport choices. He is passionate about climate action and has recently been leading product, operations and customer teams to help accelerate electric vehicle adoption. In his previous roles at Uber and Zoomo he worked on driving adoption of on-demand, shared, safe, green transportation choices with zero-tailpipe-emission vehicles. He is an industry mentor at Techstars, ClimateSalad and Climate 10X Accelerator at UNSW.

Hannah Vardy

Hannah Vardy (she/her) is a Canberra local studying Law and Climate Science at the ANU. Since mid-2023, she has volunteered on the Duty of Care campaign, which aims to enshrine in legislation a duty for governments to consider the health and wellbeing of young people and future generations when making decisions about projects that could worsen climate change. She has also coordinated youth climate action groups for a number of years, and is constantly inspired by the passion and tenacity that young people bring to campaigning for a better future.

In her spare time, Hannah enjoys veggie gardening and exploring Canberra's hiking trails.

We’ll discuss:
✅ what works and what doesn’t work for influencing a system
✅ how young voices are included or excluded from climate policy
✅ current progress in the clean energy transition
✅ the pros and cons of a “duty of care”
✅ how communities ensure they are accessible to diverse groups.

Climate, like politics more broadly, can be daunting - but it isn’t all doom and gloom. This event is for anyone interested in understanding how change is happening - and how empowering young people helps it happen faster 🌱

About Youth Decide

Many students visit Canberra in Year 5 and hear about elections from the AEC... then hear nothing more until they finish high school and vote in a real election. But what if there was a fun and memorable day back in Year 10 when they got to find their electorate, fill out a ballot, and count the votes with their own hands?

Youth Decide delivers hands-on voting experiences to help students build skills and confidence to fully participate in their democracy.

Students learn how governments are formed, how voting works, and how every preference on their ballot adds up to influence the final result.

If you know a school who would benefit from a hands-on voting experience, or if you would like to be involved in supporting Youth Decide, please contact daniel@youthdecide.net.au.