Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of joining ‘What’s the climate story in 2025?’ an online event hosted by Climate Outreach in collaboration with Green Alliance.
The event shared insights from 20 leading thinkers from academia, business, campaigning and journalism on what they think 2025 has in store for us in terms of climate change. They discussed how we can get emissions down across the whole of society – and prepare for the climate impacts that are already happening. They also asked what are the real-world challenges currently, and who needs to tackle them, and how.
Some key takeaways
It is clear that navigating the politics and polarisation of the green transition can feel really challenging, and our work at The Young Foundation to support a just transition – a transition to net zero in which no one is left behind – feels more important than ever.
The session called for meaningful engagement to be built, engaging a range of viewpoints and hearing lived experiences on the journey to net zero, meeting people where they are currently at, to understand their hopes and concerns. This might mean that some uncomfortable conversations take place; conversations that might challenge our own experiences and assumptions – but community engagement cannot be a tick-box exercise to confirm what we think we know.
A global mandate
There is a strong mandate to build meaningful engagement; one in four people in the UK think that climate change is already harming them personally, and 80 percent of people globally want stronger climate action. However, just 13% of respondents to the most recent Community Life Survey reported being involved in social action, and the majority of respondents said that it would be easier to influence decisions if they knew what issues were being considered. This suggests a strong disconnect between communities wanting to see action and having the tools to act.
Building a coalition between communities, policymakers, and businesses require everybody to engage as equal partners, to feel that their views matter – so raise awareness, hold space for discomfort, listen, and create a plan for action.
‘Targeted support’
A huge thank you to organisers for such an interesting and thought-provoking session. At The Young Foundation, we’re looking forward to positively contributing towards the climate story in 2025. Standby for our latest research, publishing soon, which will use our newly developed ‘Index of Readiness’ to assess how ready local authority districts around England are in their journey to achieving a fair transition to net zero. It will be a vital tool for national and regional decision–makers, to help deliver targeted support where it is needed the most – and what the opportunities are.
Climate change Environment Inequality Local economies Posted on: 13 February 2025 Authors: Leonie Taylor,