Nannas visit Glenbog State Forest , global conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels, message to Sir David for 100th birthday, win for Wonnarua heritage and more.
Forest Fest
Over the recent long weekend, two Nannas joined with citizen scientists and ecologists, Heidi Lincoln from Bob Brown Foundation, Andrew Wong from Wilderness Australia and Kita Ashman from World Wildlife Fund. Here is their report:
We were helping continue the recording of sightings of greater gliders in Glenbog State Forest to protect them from logging by Forestry NSW.
Gliders are nocturnal animals. They sleep during the day in hollows in old trees. Each time a glider is spotted emerging from one of these hollows at sunset, the tree can be mapped as a ‘den tree’ and protected from logging inside a 50-metre radius protection zone.
During the weekend, Andrew found a huge Eucalyptus fastigata tree, or ‘brown barrel’. As we walked around and inside it, we speculated about whether it was 30 or perhaps 40 metres high, and 300 or perhaps 500 years old.
That night Andrew and Heidi kept watch there for greater gliders and saw two in the hollows of a nearby dead tree. The two Nannas saw possums in the trees and learned that greater gliders and possums swap hollows for dens, and that night, the possums held possession of dens where the team had earlier seen greater gliders.
Even with all the evidence provided to the Forestry Corporation and subsequent obligatory protection from logging, we saw an area that had been logged since our visit September last year. This logging was done under the guise of a ‘roading operation’ (to clear trees off the roadsides). Citizen scientist, Heidi, told us that 17 truckloads of logs had been taken out of Glenbog as a result of that ‘roading’.
Colombia Conference
The first Conference on transitioning away from fossil fuels was held in Santa Marta, Colombia from 24 – 29 April 2026. The ongoing disruptions due to the hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz have made reducing fossil fuel dependency essential.
During the conference convened by Colombia and The Netherlands, 57 countries supported the commitments made under the Paris Agreement.
The conference was a safe space for discussions on how countries transition away from fossil fuels. The aim was not to develop new targets, but to advance, accelerate and implement agreed goals. Conversations centred on three key themes:
- reduce economic dependence on fossil fuels,
- transform supply and demand,
- advance international cooperation.
Fossil fuels are responsible for over 75% of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, but growth in renewable energy worldwide is surging: worldwide capacity in 2025 was almost 50% higher than in 2023, but nearly all new energy demand is met through renewables.
Transitioning away from fossil fuels is more than replacing one energy source with another. It requires broad economic transformation which must be planned with workers and communities.
Key outcomes:
- Tuvalu and Ireland will host a second conference in 2027,
- formation of a coordination group to strengthen connections and avoid duplication,
- conference report to be shared with United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the COP30 Presidency and the Secretary-General of the United Nations,
- three workstreams will be established to focus on roadmaps, finances, and decarbonization of trade balances,
- The Science Panel for the Global Energy Transition (SPGET) was launched.
Sir David Attenborough turns 100
Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday is on 8th May and Knitting Nanna fans will send him a birthday message via the Climate Action website. You can too!
Sir David’s first of many visits to Australia and the Great Barrier Reef was in 1957 on his way to New Guinea.
“From all my travels, the first time I put on scuba gear and dived on the coral reef is the moment I remember most vividly”, he said in 2015 when talking about his Great Barrier Reef TV Series. In this series, instead of diving, he travelled to the bottom of the sea in a Triton submersible. He warned that an increase in the sea temperature of 2°C would kill the coral.
Sir David is a Lifetime Patron of the Australian Museum
‘It is fantastic, better than travelling to the moon’ – David Attenborough returns to the Great Barrier Reef (The Guardian)
Win for Wonnarua heritage
The Independent Planning Commission knocked back the expansion of the Glendell open cut coal mine in the Hunter in October 2022 because of the harm it would do to Wonnarua heritage. This was a great win for the Wonnarua people who campaigned to protect their country and heritage. But the Ravensworth homestead and the surrounding land needed to be added to the NSW Heritage List for the win to be confirmed.
The site is widely accepted as the site of a massacre of Wonnarua people by mounted police in 1826. Now Heritage Minister, Penny Sharpe, has listed the homestead and the associated 450 hectares on the NSW Heritage List, despite fierce opposition from Glencore, the owner of the site.
Wonnarua elder, Scott Franks, hopes the site will be granted extra protection as an Aboriginal Place, under NSW’s National Parks and Wildlife Act 1974 in time for the bicentenary of the Ravensworth Massacre in August.
Wonnarua elder welcomes heritage listing of Ravensworth Homestead as a step to justice (Lock the Gate)
Global Environmental Prize
The Goldman Environmental Prize honours ordinary people who take extraordinary actions to protect our planet. The 2026 winners are all women who come from around the world. Sarah Finch’s campaign set a legal precedent in the UK that stopped thousands of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. (The Guardian)
Reasons to hope
Amanda McKenzie, CEO of the Climate Council, talked with Christiana Figueres, who is credited with bringing 195 countries on board to sign the Paris Agreement in 2016.
Figueres said “if you face any challenge from a pessimistic point of view, you’re pretty much guaranteed to lose. Optimism doesn’t guarantee success, but it paves the path. You have to believe the vision is possible before you’ll put your shoulder to the wheel.”
The Climate Reality Check – A Bechdel-Wallace Test for a World on Fire – is a simple tool to evaluate whether our climate reality is being represented in films, TV shows, and other narratives. It’s inspired by the Bechdel-Wallace Test, which measures gender representation. (Good Energy)
Nannas are watching
Christina Figueres talks with Sarah Ferguson on ABC 7.30 Report (ABC IVIEW)
Nannas are going to witness a landmark High Court case on climate on 13 May. This well considered series on four landmark High Court decisions is relevant at this time. Ordinary citizens challenge the laws that define the nation, and personal battles become constitutional turning points. (ABC IVIEW)
Nannas are listening
The Year that Made Me: Kon Karapanagiotidis, 2000 a heartwarming episode which includes an important decision of the High Court (ABC Radio National)
London’s mayor on lessons from one of the world’s greenest cities (Zero: The Climate Race)
Nannas are reading
Australians will pay more if Albanese prioritises fossil fuel projects, former oil and gas leaders warn (The Guardian)
NSW government sacrifices regional communities in ‘disastrous backflip’ on gas licences (Lock the Gate)
Gas tax no, new gas fields yes, Narrabri Gas Project don’t know (New England Times)
Renewables and batteries drive down fossil fuel use despite record electricity demand (ABC News)
Who’d have thought a fossil-fuel shill like Trump would be the one to spark a green revolution? The US attack on Iran has made the need for renewable energy inarguable. (The Guardian)
Federal government accused of watering down proposal to protect Australia’s threatened species and ecosystems (The Guardian)
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