Climate & Democracy: Key Takeaways for the Moment

This is a time of increasingly challenging circumstances, where the fight for climate progress is inseparable from the fight for democracy itself. Our Executive Director recently joined leaders of the Climate Action Campaign coalition in meetings with elected officials, and the consensus was clear: the fight for climate progress is fundamentally tied to the preservation of democracy.

We—everyone who values a resilient and sustainable future where all people and ecosystems thrive—must remain connected, integrate our messaging, and stay involved and informed.

The path forward must be firmly rooted in economic messaging and affordability. We must frame climate solutions not as a separate policy issue, but as a popular, anti-corruption mandate that directly benefits families. Elected officials stressed the need for clear, simple messaging that uses a sharp binary: "clean inexpensive energy vs. dirty expensive energy." We must connect climate action directly to lower costs in healthcare, housing, and energy bills, using tangible concepts like "clean air, clean water," and focusing our advocacy on how policies directly "benefit families." 

This moment demands a shift from reactive fire-fighting to detailed, long-term political and issue planning. To meet this challenge, we must execute a "Talk Climate Everywhere" strategy that ties the issue to every conversation and policy debate. This must be a bottom-up strategy focused on rebuilding public support and empowering communities.

The interconnected challenges we face demand an integrated response. Ultimately, the cost of climate inaction—measured in extreme weather, biodiversity loss, and public health crises—is indistinguishable from the cost of democratic erosion, which results in the silencing of vulnerable communities and the weaponization of policy. By reinforcing democratic norms and empowering grassroots action, we are not just protecting the right to vote; we are protecting the right to a stable climate, a just economy, and a livable future for everyone. Both struggles determine whether we face future environmental, social, and economic crises together, with collective power, or whether we endure them alone, in an increasingly authoritarian and unstable world.