How can climate campaigners effectively respond to the growing wave of resistance to environmental policies, while building genuine alliances with the working class?
Opponents of climate policies often claim these measures are prohibitively expensive and an imposition by ‘woke’ members of the liberal elite, who are wholly out of touch with the working class’s everyday struggles and precarious livelihoods. At the same time, the far right is expanding its influence within communities and mainstream politics, increasingly portraying climate change as exaggerated or even entirely fabricated.
Countering this illiberal rise is made harder by the exclusion of working class communities from environmental decision-making processes. Not only do working class people often feel disconnected from climate messaging, they also feel disconnected from the very messengers themselves. Countering this requires handing working class communities real power over the decisions that shape their lives, and the platform to speak for themselves.
What’s inside
Ten practical tools, including:
- How to build meaningful, long-lasting relationships with working class communities.
- How to respond to far right and anti-climate narratives without alienating the people they are aimed at.
- How to share decision-making power with communities.
Who it’s for
Anyone whose work depends on building working class support for climate policy:
- Campaigners and communications staff.
- Policy makers and local authority officers.
- Trade union organisers and reps.
- Community organisations and funders.
This toolkit has been funded by the European Union through the Green Economy Coalition and Stichting International Institute for Environment and Development Europe (IIED Europe).