At a time when anti-environment narratives are gaining traction and hard fought commitments are slipping, climate and nature advocates are being pushed to rethink how they organise, communicate and build support to protect the planet.
Last week, we brought together campaigners, communicators, organisers and strategists from across the climate and nature sector to explore what building digital power looks like now – and what movements need to do differently to meet the moment.
Supported by the European Climate Foundation, and working with our friends Rally, we took a deep dive into themes and tactics across organising, creator strategy, narrative change, AI, digital mobilisation and direct action.
Going into the day, I expected that we’d spend a lot of time talking about algorithms, platforms, tactics and tools. And we did.
But there was a thread throughout all of it that I think we need to unpack more – and that’s about power.
Climate action can feel threatening
We talk a lot at Forward Action about “building digital power”, and rightly so, because it’s vital. But one thing the day crystallised for me was how differently power is experienced depending on where you’re standing.
That came through strongly in Mika Minio-Paluello’s session on creator organising at TUC.
Here’s the argument that Mika laid out that really stuck with me:
While in the progressive space we often feel underpowered, many people feel that climate policy is something powerful that’s happening to – or in spite of – them, rather than something they are part of shaping. And increasingly, anti-environmental organisations are positioning climate action as a threat to jobs, identity and security.
Within climate and nature campaigning, it’s easy to feel like we don’t have enough power. And yet, externally, there’s a perception to some that the climate movement does have power and even a perception that we have too much.
Governments around the world have signed up to Net Zero targets.
Entire industries are changing.
Public expectations have shifted enormously in the last decade.
For some people, particularly communities already feeling economically insecure or politically alienated, that change can feel threatening, imposed, and disconnected from their day-to-day experiences.
From audiences to organisers: great digital drives offline action
The answer isn’t to retreat from climate action – the stakes are too high. It’s to widen participation in it.
We need to:
- Tell better stories about what a greener economy could actually mean for ordinary people – and we need those stories to be told by unexpected voices
- Organise with people, not just broadcast at them
- Help people see themselves within the future we’re fighting for
Throughout the day, each speaker returned to a version of this same idea: power grows when more people feel ownership over it.
That idea, using online spaces as an entry point into collective action, echoed throughout the day. The goal for great online activity is to drive offline action.
For Green New Deal Rising, that meant using digital tools to get people organising offline during the election.
Their “My Election Map” project helped people find local progressive campaign events, powered in part by volunteers manually updating spreadsheets with actions happening around the country. It was messy, practical, and effective.
One line from the session summed it up perfectly: “Our social media is the front desk of our movement.”
We had brilliant conversations about creator strategy and why movements can’t rely solely on institutional channels anymore. Organisations are often slowed down by lengthy sign-off processes and understandable risk aversion, while creators can respond instantly to cultural moments and communicate in ways that feel far more human online.
But the most interesting conversations were about participation. About helping more people create, speak, organise and communicate in their own voice.
The TUC shared how they’re training hundreds of workers to create their own video content.
Richard Roaf shared how Greenpeace are investing in in-house creators and embedding creative thinking deeper into campaigning work, driving a huge increase in organic social engagement.
Others explored how movements can build genuine relationships with creators and communities rather than treating them as distribution channels.
Culture shapes belief
The sessions on narrative and misinformation added another layer to this conversation.
Sandra Ata’s workshop on prebunking explored how familiarity shapes belief online, and how movements need to get better at spotting harmful narratives early before they spread widely.
One point that really stayed with me was the idea that “objective truth is less important than familiarity” in shaping public perception online. That’s a sobering reality when our instincts are always to lead with facts.
Rashad Robinson’s keynote connected many of these threads together by focusing not just on policy change, but cultural power – the “unwritten rules” that shape who is heard, what feels possible, and which futures people can imagine.
And we explored examples from groups like “Everyone Hates Elon”, whose work has captured attention because of how they understand culture, tension, humour and timing. A 400 metre banner. Fake urine bottles hidden at the Met Gala. Projections onto Bezos’ penthouse. They have a unique knack for being disruptive, visual, funny and impossible to ignore – and we adore them for it.
Building movements people can see themselves in
Never underestimate how important it is to understand where people’s attention already is. Too often, we communicate as if everyone is embedded in our worldview, when in reality, they’re far from it.
One speaker had simple advice for us all: “Read the Daily Mail.”
Anti-climate actors will always have more money than progressive movements. They are less constrained by ethics, truth or consistency. There’s no point pretending otherwise – that’s the reality we’re operating in.
And there are still so many questions:
- How do we move faster without burning people out?
- How can organisations take more creative risks?
- How do we build trust in an increasingly fragmented media environment?
- How do we make climate action feel hopeful, collective and grounded in people’s real lives?
But the brilliant people we brought together reminded me how much latent power already exists across the climate and nature movement, in its organisers, creators, workers, communities, storytellers and campaigners who are experimenting every day with new ways to bring people in.
Building power happens when we create the conditions where more people can see themselves as participants in change rather than spectators to it.
There’s a big job to do, and we’ll do it better when we come together, work across movements, learn from each other – and act.
Want to talk about how Forward Action can work with you to build digital power? Get in touch for a no-pressure chat.