Gather your friends, family, colleagues and neighbours or connect with the wider community, exchange experiences and ideas on climate action, start taking action locally… and have fun!
Why is citizen engagement in climate action so important?
- Inspire and motivate the people around you to adopt healthier and more sustainable lifestyles and practices, both in their private and professional lives.
- Empower people to influence public decision-making through civic participation, and advocate for more sustainable policies, practices and investments.
- Counteract climate misinformation and disinformation, in real life discussions and online, that can be used to promote the interests of specific actors and groups – by sharing information from reliable sources, including examples of good practices and the benefits of climate-friendly options.
- Develop ideas, initiatives, projects and solutions that contribute to the local green transition.
- Between January and October 2024, over 3,500 people across the EU-27 countries participated in citizen-led group activities focusing on climate action that were shared with the European Climate Pact. The results of this first round of citizen engagement in climate action was shared with policymakers at local, regional, national and EU-levels, during the European Week of Regions and Cities side event organised by the Pact on 8 October 2024, ‘Celebrating citizen-led climate action’.
How to participate
- Get inspiration from six quick and easy-to-implement activities for citizen engagement in climate action.
- Register the activity you are planning to host.
- Host the activity.
- Share the results with the European Climate Pact.
- Disseminate your activity and its results on social media with the hashtags #EUClimatePact and #MyWorldOurPlanet.
- Invite others to host their own activities!
Host as many activities as you like and share the results with us!
Why participate?
- To raise awareness about the climate crisis.
- To share solutions and ideas on climate action.
- To connect with like-minded people, expand your network… and have fun!
- To gain experience in facilitating group activities and dialogues.
- To gain visibility and recognition. You may be invited to present your experience at local, national and EU-level events, and the European Climate Pact will communicate about the examples of best practice.
Yes – for multiple reasons:
- people pay more attention to the opinions and views of the people they know or can relate to;
- your positive climate action experiences may inspire and motivate others to act;
- when you engage people that you know, or with whom you share a common reality, you will be able to focus on what is directly relevant to them, making your activity meaningful and compelling;
- as you explain topics using everyday language, participants will gain a better understanding of important, complex issues related to the climate crisis;
- a sense of community that such a group activity creates is key to motivating people to join forces and take climate action.
The most important change often starts locally, and often takes just a small group of committed people to begin. So start by making the green transition happen in your community!
Participation is open to all interested individuals and organisations in the EU, including the European Climate Pact Ambassadors, the Partners of the Pact, community leaders, teachers, educators and youth.
Yes. Whether it is an experimental approach or a well-tested and proven approach, we want to hear about it! Share your experience to support learning and replication across Europe, while gaining opportunities for visibility and recognition at local, national and European levels.
Experiences of successful engagement of groups and individuals that are not yet informed or not yet interested in climate change issues are particularly sought after.
Yes. Whether it is a community group reusing waste materials to produce art or an individual exhibition open to the public and aimed at raising awareness of climate change impacts and the need for a more circular economy, a wide range of examples can be considered.
Yes. As an activity organiser, you are responsible for obtaining valid consent from your participants.The European Climate Pact can only disseminate your group pictures through its public channels, such as the website, if natural persons, recognisable in your photo provide their consent. Follow this link to download the consent form that adult participants should sign. When you also have children among the participants, the consent form for minors should be signed by their parents or legal guardian.
The European Union and the European Commission are committed to the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data. The applicable legislation must be observed, namely the European General Data Protection Regulation - Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj.
Yes. Download the mobile app AWorld of the United Nations ActNow campaign to learn more about actions that you can take to live more sustainably and to better understand your impact on climate by calculating your carbon footprint. This app also offers you the possibility to participate in online challenges by committing to individual action and recording your progress.
