Climate Action Has a Messaging Problem

In the summer of 2024, Dutch citizens ranked climate change as the most serious problem facing the world. Just a few months later, they elected a national government that ran on a platform of pulling back its climate policies.

This isn't just the case in the Netherlands, which has long prided itself as one of the most climate-forward countries in Europe. Around the world, four out of five people say they want their countries to take stronger climate action. Yet when citizens from nations comprising more than half the world's population went to the polls in 2024, barely anyone voted for it. Only one country — the U.K. — elected a party that ran on a platform of ambitious climate action.

Surveys show that top election-defining issues are economies, national security and healthcare. These are all closely connected to climate outcomes. Yet worldwide, people who support climate action are not electing climate-forward governments. So why are we failing to amass and sustain political support for climate action when it's so relevant and critical?

Often, it's not the issues themselves, but the way they're framed.

The mainstream narrative today is that climate action is about reducing emissions and avoiding economic losses. It's clear that this narrative is not speaking to people in the ways that matter — that is, convincing them to elect governments ready to transition our economies toward a better future. We need a new approach — one focused on the many ways nature-friendly, low-carbon and resilient development is already improving people's lives today.

From Counting Carbon to Transforming Economies

We've known for a while that halting climate change is not just about cutting emissions or building resilience. It's about transitioning every sector of our economy so that it is not only good for climate, but also good for people and nature.

For years, experts have demonstrated that climate action is not just compatible with economic development, but could add trillions in benefits to the global economy by 2030. Electric vehicles and renewable energy are rapidly growing because people see them as a better and increasingly affordable alternative to fossil fuels. With various forms of clean technology improving exponentially, 91% of renewable energy is now cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives across the world.

Still, right-priced technology and long-term economic benefits are not enough. To build momentum for the green transition, we need to show the majority of people that investing in a clean future makes their lives better — not just a decade from now, but today.

Making People's Lives Better — Now

The good news is that countless examples are already proving that well-designed climate policies bring real and immediate benefits.

Creating new jobs and new markets

In Africa, nearly two-thirds of land is affected by degradation and drought. Land restoration is a remarkably effective and profitable solution: Every $1 invested in restoration creates up to $30 in economic benefits. While 34 countries in Africa have committed to restore at least 100 million hectares of degraded land by 2030, an effort of this scale is extremely difficult to achieve because restoration is a hyperlocal activity.

To bridge the gap, the TerraMatch platform has been working with a dozen funders to channel finance and other support to over 100 local restoration practitioners, including entrepreneurs, NGOs, farmers and more. Last year, I met one of the recipients, a women-owned business called Exotic EPZ. They work with 10,000 farmers growing macadamia nuts on degraded lands across Kenya. Exotic EPZ pays farmers a steady income while processing the nuts in its factory and exporting them to global markets. This model puts money straight into farmers' hands, giving them real incentive to care for the macadamia trees, which live for 50 years.

Over the long-term, this restoration will sequester carbon, recharge groundwater and reduce erosion — all while creating a sustainable income that improves lives and livelihoods for generations.

Reducing traffic and cleaning the air

In London, ambitious sustainability and air quality policies have been embedded into the fabric of the city.

Back in 2000, when Mayor Ken Livingstone proposed a £5 car congestion fee for vehicles in a small stretch of the city to "get London moving," nearly everyone predicted it would fail — including gambling firm William Hill, with 4-1 odds. More than two decades later, the fee still stands — and has even increased in price and broadened to new parts of the city.

Since the policy first came into place in 2003, London has reinvested profits into public transport like buses, bike lanes and pedestrian walkways. People directly felt how reduced traffic saved them time and money. Everyone was breathing cleaner air.

London's climate policies only became more ambitious throughout the following mayoral administrations. Conservative Mayor Boris Johnson supplemented Livingstone's 2008 Low Emission Zone with the creation of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in 2015. Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan has worked with a coalition of community members, such as Mums for Lungs, to expand the ULEZ even further. While these policies did face opposition, they endured because enough people benefited from them.

Not only has this domino effect locked in cleaner transport for London, but other cities across the world have followed suit with their own versions of the policy.

Saving lives and livelihoods

The country of Bangladesh allocates over 10% of its national budget toward climate action — particularly adaptation. For most countries, an investment like this would be politically improbable, if not impossible.

Yet people across Bangladesh are seeing direct benefits from investment — especially those living on the coasts, which are regularly slammed by storms and flooding.

When a category 5 cyclone led to over 138,000 deaths in 1991, citizens criticized the national government for its lack of preparedness; the country needed 5,000 shelters to adequately protect its citizens but had only built 300. Since then, the government has invested in a suite of disaster-preparedness programs, including early warning systems and initiatives to empower local populations. For example, the recruitment of women volunteers helped significantly reduce casualties among women and children during disasters. When Cyclone Mocha, also category 5, hit Bangladesh in 2023, more than 700,000 people were successfully evacuated, with only three indirect deaths in the country.

These kinds of systematic investments in adaptation are rare but critical. Bangladesh's success has inspired other countries, such as Ghana and Sri Lanka, to adopt similar strategies and is aiding in their efforts.

Altogether, these examples demonstrate that when projects and policies provide clear, immediate benefits to people — not just reduce carbon — they can create political momentum to unlock incredible results at multiple levels. They show us that if we get the transition right, it can produce a prosperous economy that is good for people, nature and climate.

Rebranding and Reworking Climate Policy

It's time to think, talk and act differently around climate.

Changing a centuries-old economy that pollutes the air and exploits nature to one with radically different outcomes requires all of society to be invested. To orchestrate this level of change, we have to think systematically.

Focusing on maximizing benefits for people has helped critical climate projects succeed despite political headwinds. This has proven possible both at small and large scales. There are countless stories around the world that show this, many of which appear in my new book, The New Global Possible: Rebuilding Optimism in the Age of Climate Crisis.

At a time of fractured geopolitics, mounting climate impacts and rising inequality, it's more important than ever that we learn from initiatives that are already working. We need to use proven solutions to unlock cascading benefits and build a new practice of orchestrating change for good.