Topic: Collective Climate Action

Collective Climate Action (origin: collective and Elinor Ostrom)

Collective action refers to action taken by a group of people to achieve a shared goal. In the case of collective climate action, the goal can be mitigation of the effects of climate changeadaptation of systems or infrastructure in anticipation of climate risk, or a deeper transformation of the conditions driving the climate crisis. Oftentimes, collective climate action is conceptualized as a grassroots social movement, composed of citizens working for change at the community scale. Examples of this sort of collective climate action include the School Strike for Climate demonstrations, community action days for tree planting, beach clean-ups, or teach-ins. The concept of collective action is often juxtaposed with individual action, which focuses on the individual choices, decisions, and actions people make in the name of environmentally responsible behavior.

Conventional collective action theory questions the efficacy of collective action, positing that individuals will not work toward the common good without the presence of externally imposed regulations (see: tragedy of the commons). Economist Elinor Ostrom challenged this perspective, contending that in the case of climate change, collective action can be achieved via a polycentric approach where individual families, communities, non-governmental organizations, and sub-national and national governments work to combat climate change within their own spheres of influence.

©2024 ClimateLit (Neela Nandyal)

Related terms: individual actionmitigation, tragedy of the commons, transformation

Looking for more? Check these resources:

Ostrom, Elinor. “Polycentric Systems for Coping with Collective Action and Global Environmental Change.” Global Environmental Change, vol. 20, no. 4, 2010, pp. 550–57, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2010.07.004.

Tosun, Jale, and Jonas J. Schoenefeld. “Collective climate action and networked climate governance.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change 8.1 (2017): e440.

15 of 53 items found.

Sort by

by Carlos López Estrada, Don Hall

“Now to restore peace, I must find the last dragon. My name is Raya.”

by Danna Smith

“A rooftop garden is what we need / Friends and family all agree. / A garden starts with hardy seeds. / A rooftop garden is what we need.”

by Jane Lister Reis, Margie Lister Muenzer

“Everyone needs to help make our planet healthy again. The animals are counting on us!”

by Don Hall

“This place is alive. It’s a living thing! We didn’t find the heart of Pando. We found an actual heart.”

by Greta Thunberg

“This is the biggest story in the world”

by Peter Brown

“The garden had always wanted to explore the rest of the city, and that spring it was finally ready to make its move”

by Penelope Arlon, Susan Hayes

“This is a book that turns itself into dozens of eco-projects to inspire you to think more about the planet we all call home.”

by Lamar Giles

“So many times in history it’s the youth who see the clearest and can save the day”.

by Caryl Hart

“Soon I shall grow a whole forest”

by M. G. Leonard

“One snowflake will melt on its own, but billions of them together … are powerful enough to change the face of a planet.”

by Kate Gordon, Rebecca Lim

“Home might be dying, and drier than the bone of a long dead animal, but it’s still home. I don’t want another one.”

by Virginia Bergin

“It wasn’t just about surviving anymore—it was about deciding what kind of world we wanted to build.”

One Earth, cover

by Megan Herbert, Michael E. Mann

“I’m just a kid. What can I do? / Someone must help us. It’s now up to you.”

by Adam Gidwitz, Jesse Casey

“I believe that someday we will be able to undo all the damage the Schmoke brothers have done to the world and its creatures.”

by Adam Gidwitz

“Brand-new friend. Terrifying teacher. Mythical animal. Breaking and entering. First day at a new school.”