Build Effective Collective Climate Action
Facts: Build effective collective climate action 🫶🏽🌍 | Feelings: "“Rest in the grace of the world” 𓅣🌌| Action: Ban Fossil Ads ⛽🙅🏽
Welcome to We Can Fix It, where we face the climate crisis with facts, feelings, and action. Written by me, climate scientist Kim Nicholas.
Hi friends,
It’s summer! That time of year when Swedes try to absorb a whole year’s worth of sunshine in a few weeks. Simon and I will soon be joining them, taking off on our sailboat for parts unknown as soon as our New Electric Motor arrives from Germany! That means you won’t hear from me here in July, but if you want to follow our adventures, you can check out
.But I’m getting ahead of myself— first, let’s talk about building effective collective action, resting in the grace of the world, and banning fossil advertising.
Facts: How to build effective collective climate action
The Psychology of Collective Climate Action has excellent insights for building and sustaining effective, resilient collective climate action.
I’ll share some highlights below; I highly recommend reading this new book!
What is collective climate action?
The authors start with a clear definition, which always warms my heart:
“Collective climate action is when individuals act as members of a group with the aim of changing socio-political structures in the face of the climate crisis.”
- Karen Hamann, Eva Junge, Paula Blumenschein, Sophia Dasch, Alex Wernke and Julian Bleh, 2025, The Psychology of Collective Climate Action: Building Climate Courage
Collective action goes beyond the private sphere. It can be volunteering for an environmental group, attending protests, writing your local government officials, or pushing for change at work or school.
How does collective action happen?
The book builds on the Social Identity Model of Collective Action, from a meta-analysis that found injustice, identity, and efficacy (the belief you can reach your intended goals) drove people to collective action.
How to increase effective collective climate action?
To strengthen collective climate action, strengthen its component pieces in the social identity model.
Specifically, Hamman et al. recommend:
Social identification:
Build a shared understanding of what the group stands for
Cultivate solidarity
Have experiences together
Create situations where many people join climate action
Have fun!
Moral beliefs:
Reflect on values
Draw attention to injustices
Talk about outrage
Consider a radical flank.
Efficacy beliefs:
Highlight success
Share in credit for success
Set a small number of diverse goals
Support each other in developing and using skills
Give appreciative feedback to others
“Design collective climate actions that inspire people and make them feel enthusiastic, hopeful, proud, and moved.”
To make climate action resilient and effective:
Collective action:
Pick your battles
Participate in collective climate action, which can foster motivation.
Psychological effects:
Actively maintain personal and group resilience to avoid burnout.
Ensure belonging
Celebrate success
Cultivate efficacy
Establish a process to handle conflict and infighting
Make time for fun
Spread tasks and trust others
Take breaks.
Makes a lot of sense, right?? How can you apply these tips to climate groups you’re already a part of? Let me know in the comments below. And keep reading for a fantastic way to put these insights to use in a high-impact local campaign!
Feelings: “Rest in the grace of the world”
My sister recently sent me this Wendell Berry poem.
I’d read and loved it before, but it really struck me this time.
I am someone prone to “tax my life with the forethought of grief.” This poem was such a beautiful reminder to find and appreciate the peace of wild things and places, even amidst despair for the world. <3
P.S. Watch this lovely <2 minute poetry film by Charlotte Ager & Katy Wang, while Wendell Barry reads his poem for you, from the
.Action: Lobby Your City to Ban Fossil Ads
Ready to put your collective climate action to work?
Well, how would you like to do something that, according to a recent Nature Climate Change comment:
Counteracts decades of disinformation, denial, and delay from the fossil fuel industry, and weakens their moral license
Fights greenwashing
Shows that bold climate policies are possible, and legislators have a mandate to enact them
Can succeed even in places ruled by powerful corporate interests and seats of right-wing populist power
Enjoys twice as much support as opposition across 13 EU countries, suggesting limited potential backlash, and does not restrain consumer “freedom”
Help unlock the climate transformation we need, by weakening the dominant, unsustainable system and creating space for sustainable alternatives
Creates, supports, and normalizes a low-carbon culture, which can break carbon lock-in
Reduces the cognitive dissonance of living in a world where high-carbon business as usual goes on amidst a climate emergency 🫠
Sounds pretty good, right?? Then your action this month is to….
Join or start a group to lobby your city to ban fossil fuel ads in public spaces
The Hague, city of over half a million people in The Netherlands, has already done it. In January 2025, the city became the world’s first to implement a law that prohibits advertisements for fossil fuel products and services in public spaces. No more ads for gasoline (petrol), diesel, flying, cars with internal combustion engines, contracts for fossil-based electricity, or cruises.
And they managed to enact this ban in a city that’s a major corporate base for that non-friend of climate action, Shell, and seat of national government where the anti-climate, right-wing populist party got the most votes in the last election.
AND they’ve recently won a court case, upholding the ban!
How did The Hague ban fossil ads?
They followed science. In 2023, a group of Dutch academics issued a government report “A Ban on Fossil Advertising: Essential but More is Needed.” Thijs Bouman and coauthors wrote about the process and what it means in a Nature Climate Change comment, which is how I heard about it.
They followed growing political support, including from United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who said in a 2024 speech:
“Many in the fossil fuel industry have shamelessly greenwashed, even as they have sought to delay climate action – with lobbying, legal threats, and massive ad campaigns.
Many governments restrict or prohibit advertising for products that harm human health – like tobacco.
Some are now doing the same with fossil fuels.
I urge every country to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies.
And I urge news media and tech companies to stop taking fossil fuel advertising.”
—United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres
They organized support from local groups to ban fossil fuel advertising and coalitions of academics, creatives, finance, politics and activists to create a social tipping point towards a sustainable new normal.
How can YOU ban fossil ads?
Lucky for us, World Without Fossil Ads has a step by step toolkit for what to do! Huge shout-out to the group Fossil Free Advertising that developed this guide and helped support the win in The Hague. See their great overview below and check out their resources to put a fossil ad ban in motion in your town!
You can also:
Check the World Without Fossil Ads database of over 250 initiatives to ban fossil advertising. You can be inspired by recent wins like Zurich removing digital ad screens in public and see campaigns involving doctors, schools, banks, and more.
Read up on the research providing evidence that fossil advertising helps sustain high emissions, summarized in 2 pages (+18 pages of footnotes, <3) for municipal or national ad bans.
At your next climate group meeting, suggest you take up this campaign— or invite some friends over for a backyard BBQ and get them fired up to join you!
Parting Tidbits
Upcoming talks, come see me here:
Speaking of collective action from effective climate groups— I’ll be joining the Rebel Mammas at their 24 hour climate protest in Gustav Adolfs Torg, Malmö. I’ll be there from 08:00-noon on Saturday, August 23, and giving a speech around 11. Please join us!
Book Recommendation
The Psychology of Collective Climate Action - Building Climate Courage. By Karen Hamann, Eva Junge, Paula Blumenschein, Sophia Dasch, Alex Wernke, and Julian Bleh. Clear, accessible, short but well-referenced chapters full of practical advice for creating and sustaining effective and resilient climate groups that can make real change happen. Read it at your next climate group meeting, or use it as the basis to start your own group!
Podcast Recommendation
Funny and kickass podcast w/ Kate Marvel on her new book Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet. Hooray for climate scientists embracing All the Climate Feels!
Thanks for reading!
xo,
Kim
P.S. Thank you SOOO MUCH to those of you who left me a voicemail about your climate questions, successes and dilemmas. I LOVED hearing from you! I will get back to you after summer as I put the podcast together— please stay tuned!
And I’d love to hear from more of you, please feel free to send me a voice note!
Thanks for sharing this. It’s great to see more resources that acknowledge and help people navigate it. A lot of people could really benefit from this!
Thanks for sharing the Social Identity Model of Collective Action. As I read through the list of ways to increase collective climate action, I was so happy to see that my local Third Act chapter covers just about all of them! Thanks also for the lovely poem, and enjoy your vacation.