By Karl Vidamour – PhD student, School of History, Anthropology, Politics and Philosophy at QUB
Phoenix Education Centre NI is highlighting the connections between climate change, social class, and community resilience. Climate change is often discussed as a shared crisis, but its impacts are not felt equally. Working-class communities, already familiar with challenges like the cost-of-living crisis, face additional barriers when it comes to addressing climate change. Join us at the RISE Summit to explore how climate action can be reimagined to address these disparities and make a tangible difference.
The Triple Planetary Crisis
Climate change is part of what is known as the triple planetary crisis, which refers to three major linked crises affecting the planet simultaneously: climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss. These are not the only crises in town, though. Working-class people will be most familiar with the cost-of-living crisis. Given that we live in a world of many crises, it is easy to feel cynical, apathetic, and dejected when called upon to act—particularly when working-class life is characterized by precarity and “just about getting by,” which makes it difficult to act beyond meeting immediate needs.
The Shift Toward Participatory Climate Action
Increasing attention is being paid to participatory and place-based climate action. Governments are seeing the need to include grassroots communities in solutions to environmental problems by developing approaches done with, not to, communities. But many working-class communities have experienced tokenistic consultation, masked as participation before, which has created skepticism toward participating in initiatives.
The Problem with Individual Responsibility
Furthermore, climate change narratives have indulged in “we are all in this together” too often, ignoring clear inequalities. Policy has focused on what Professor Elizabeth Shove terms the ABC approaches, which attempt to change individual A-attitudes, B-behaviors, and C-choices. Think of any time you have been reminded of your individual carbon footprint or made to feel guilty for making an unecological choice. By placing the responsibility for addressing climate change at the individual level, we ignore the structures that constrain choices, such as class position.
Working-class people tend to make decisions based on need and have little scope for deliberating on how to be the best environmental citizen. But this does not mean they make choices based on un-environmental attitudes. For example, working-class people drive petrol or diesel vehicles because the cost of electric vehicles is still significantly higher, and other barriers exist, such as charging facilities being more suited to homes with off-street parking.
Turning Crisis into Opportunity
The key to resisting the temptation to become apathetic in the barrage of crisis narratives and poor policy is to see the opportunities that climate action presents to be potentially transformative for working-class communities. Climate action initiatives present an opportunity for working-class communities to address material needs and develop collective agency and a greater community voice through climate education and collective action.
For example, climate action can address fuel poverty by insulating homes and making them energy efficient, reducing bills. Developing new green spaces can revitalize deprived communities. Reorienting economic activity toward local areas reduces carbon emissions while also regenerating working-class communities and supporting local businesses. It also presents opportunities for communities to learn about the causes and consequences of climate change, helping them to understand their social reality and develop greater agency.
Challenging the “We’re All in This Together” Narrative
Climate education can challenge the notion that we are all in this together by considering that it is not the sum of individual actions by working people that has caused climate change, but a political and economic system that has prioritized accumulation over meeting the needs of people and planet. This can explore how working-class communities are less responsible for climate change but stand to be the most impacted by it, highlighting that climate is indeed a class issue.
The Need for True Participatory Initiatives
Transformative climate action is not a given, though; it needs working-class communities to push for truly participatory initiatives accessible to them and focused on “just transition” principles of reducing existing inequalities as essential to addressing climate change. It requires leadership to resist climate cynicism in the face of poor policy choices and to challenge narratives that present solutions as the remit of those with less power, such as the working class.
Get Involved: Join the RISE Summit
For those interested in advocating for a fairer, more sustainable future, the RISE Summit is an opportunity to connect, learn, and take action. Purchase your tickets here to join the conversation and be part of a movement that’s reimagining climate action to benefit everyone.