The impacts of climate disruption are hitting communities around the world, in all countries, in all regions. The levers of action are located in relationships—between stakeholders and decision-makers and in the ways in which public policy is designed and solutions are made into mainstream reality.
The Earth Civics mission starts from the recognition that you have a stake in the health of planetary systems. All people, and all living things, are climate stakeholders. You have a right to have a say in decisions that make your life safer or less safe.
At the grassroots level, Earth Civics provides education and empowerment to citizen advocates in diverse communities, landscapes, and political cultures, around the world. Our aim is to support improvement of civic and policy structures to build political will for a livable future. Earth Civics advocates are not affilitated with the organization, but bring their own priorities and insights to decision-makers, to shape policies that counter climate disruption and favor climate-resilient development.
At the international level, Earth Civics works to advance multilateral cooperation to counter the Triple Planetary Crisis and its cascade effects. Our aim is to bring stakeholders’ insights, needs, and priorities to the work of aligning finance and investment with climate-resilient development, advancing climate-smart trade, and reducing vulnerability to people, communities, and countries.
Why civics is so important
The word ‘civics’ has its roots in ancient public policy process. It has referred, at times, to:
- The business of the city, or its wider landscape of activity;
- symbols of recognition of faithful service to a particular civic structure—a city, state, or republic;
- expected duties of the formally recognized and engaged citizen;
- the general description of open policy processes.
In the 21st century, as we face various overlapping challenges unprecedented in their scale and complexity, civics means engagement, as a human being, in the shared project of shaping future experience in the places we live and work, and at national and international levels.
For the Earth Civics team, ‘civics’ means:
- Participation, active collaboration toward recognition and protection of rights and dignity;
- Working together in ways that make the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into everyday practice;
- Listening, learning, engaging forthrightly and in good faith;
- An interactive recognition that we do not define each other, but we are defined by the dignity with which we treat others.
Civics is also the work we do to make good faith participation and engagement an active part of the climate crisis response, at local, national, and international levels. We work to open doors and decision-making processes to stakeholders, to help people of conscience foster a politics of responsible stewardship and sustainable development.
Get involved
If you want to make a difference in the civic spaces shaping our climate future, click below and sign up. There are many ways to act on the Earth Civics mission, or just to stay informed about our work. (You will be registered to receive the Earth Civics newsletter, which you can cancel at any time from the bottom of any newsletter email.)
