Mobilizing Local Leadership for Climate Justice in New York

Online campaigners have pioneered new ways of organizing, creating a whole new method of activism. We can now send a message to millions of people in the blink of an eye. We can experiment with content and optimize our call to action in real time. This has changed the way major organizations engage their supporter base and is maximizing the potential of groups to deliver public mobilization in favor of the issues they campaign for. Yet with this style of campaigning, numbers matter. Leaders in politics and business care if millions of people do, they care less if a few thousand do.

We also know that advocating for systemic change is hard. The challenge has plagued climate campaigners for years, how can you convey the urgency and extent of change required, while grounding the campaign in a reality that compels people to take action? Melting Arctic ice is worrying, but once it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. Even though the impacts of climate change are reaching more communities — the U.S Government have formally recognized the first climate refugees in Louisiana —  most of us go on unaffected on a daily basis.

At Purpose, we’ve started to think about and experiment with tackling these issues with a local, service-driven model. To do this we’re looking at three key things: what’s the issue, who does it matter for and what tools can we create for them? Big numbers matter less and mobilizing the right audiences is more important than ever. 

With this in mind, in partnership with The Working Families Party, we created New York Renews, a coalition of social and environmental justice, unions and community organizations to demand that New York State lead the way in clean energy jobs in communities already feeling the impacts of climate change.

Our ask was bold: Accessible Affordable 100% Clean Energy in New York State by 2050. We rallied the people who stood to benefit most, connecting our goal with tangible economic opportunities. Our campaign narrative took climate change out of the abstract and planted it firmly in the everyday lived experience of the constituency that would help us win, and would win with our help.

On Wednesday June 1st, over 1000 New Yorkers joined our team in Albany to demand that the State Assembly pass the New York State Climate and Community Protection Act (A. 10342), legislation that ensures that solutions to climate change are rooted in economic and racial justice. The Act passed the State Assembly 92-41 and has over 30 bipartisan cosponsors.

Across the state New York Renews is hosting Town Hall meetings to chart the path to victory with local communities and elected officials.

By creating an overarching brand that united a diverse and powerful coalition and crafting compelling communications, New York Renews mobilized a small but mighty constituency that was able to make real inroads. Our audience was local and their participation mattered. Passing and implementing New York Renews will go a small way to stop melting Arctic sea ice, but perhaps more importantly, it will go a long way towards securing the economic future of communities that stand to suffer the most if climate change goes on unchecked.