Chapters

Chapter 10 – Keep going and learn from each other

Thank you for reading this far! We hope that the stories you have read inspire you with new enthusiasm and give you plenty of ideas on how you can make change happen. Every step counts, even when it seems difficult to keep the end goal in sight. But that end … Read more

Chapter 9 – Take time to build power

One of the key ways activists win is by building power for the long term. This means you are able to keep the pressure on decision-makers until they agree to the demands of your campaign. But here’s the challenge: building a long-term movement requires the love, energy and determination of … Read more

Chapter 7 – Find Powerful Messengers

Doctors are one of the most trusted professions – when they speak, most of us listen. We found this campaign in Brazil fascinating, as they found a thoughtful way to empower local doctors to explain the issues with coal mining, and the impact it was having on local health. That … Read more

Chapter 6 – Don’t forget companies

Campaigning to persuade companies to change their behaviour can be a rich and powerful experience. Unlike governments, they can be speedy, responsive, and bold. Often companies are very sensitive to anything that could affect their public reputation, which gives you, as a campaigner, a huge advantage. We had a really … Read more

Chapter 5 – Build Power by Making Friends

Building enough power to make change happen can be hard work. The next example is from activists in Brazil who used a ‘big tent’ approach back in 2018 to bring together hundreds of organisations and community groups. This took serious time – two years – but was hugely impactful. SPOTLIGHT: … Read more

Chapter 3 – Empower people to use their own voice

People react best to people. But when we campaign on climate change, we can be drawn into endless technical conversations full of acronyms and technical jargon. Quite quickly it’s easy to forget the human impact of climate change. We loved talking to Earthlife Africa about their experience centering the experiences … Read more

Chapter 2 – Research, reflect, be reactive and experiment

We loved our conversation with activists in Indonesia, about how they tackled a challenge every campaigner knows: that sinking feeling when your campaigns are just not getting support from the public. Change.org Indonesia was finding it tricky to get people engaged with climate change. So they did some detailed research, … Read more

Chapter 1 – Make it relatable 

We’ve really enjoyed talking to activists from around the world about how they’ve used net zero in their campaigning. One key theme that resonated across many of our interviews was the need to break a net zero goal down to something relatable to everyday life. This great example comes from … Read more

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