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Reports & guides | 24 March 2021

Linking individual action and system change in climate advocacy

Through our new Climate Engagement Lab, we’re enabling climate advocates to build campaigns around evidence-based practical insights into how to drive meaningful public engagement with climate change.  In the pilot phase of this project we’ve been asking campaigners what issues they’d like more guidance on communicating effectively. By popular request, here is our briefing providing campaign insights into how to effectively link individual change and system change in climate advocacy.

Check out our accompanying animated video and webinar below.

Some commentators argue that climate advocacy efforts focused on the actions of individuals simply makes people feel guilty, while acting as a distraction from the role of big polluters in driving climate change and the need for wider system change driven by governments. This happens particularly in the context of UN climate summits like the upcoming COP26 conference.

The social science of climate change engagement, however, shows that individual change is an integral part of system change — in driving social shifts, influencing government and in wider climate advocacy. On the other side of the coin, it also shows that governments need to focus efforts on empowering individuals to take action in their lives for system change to happen.

The recording below, from our webinar on 25 March 2021, discusses highlights from this briefing as well as more widely how UK climate advocates can engage citizens around the upcoming COP26 climate conference.


The start-up phase of the Climate Engagement Lab is kindly funded by the Samworth Foundation, Kestrelman Trust and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

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