The Mandate Keeps Growing: More Communities Stepping Up for Climate and Nature
Something worth celebrating happened at Westminster earlier this month: a packed-out debate in Parliament on biodiversity, ecosystem collapse and national security, driven by more than 9,000 people across The Climate Coalition who'd contacted their MP beforehand - and backed up by MPs from four different parties making, in their own words, the same case. It's a reminder that public pressure moves things. But it also didn't come from nowhere. It's the same mandate we wrote about after this year's Great Big Green Week, when 1.6 million people took part in the UK's biggest ever celebration of climate and nature action - and if you want to see where that mandate is actually built, you have to look past Westminster, back to the streets, gardens and community halls where people did the building.
MPs from across the political spectrum notice the volume, and showed up, speaking passionately and asking important questions. Adrian Ramsay (Greens) said "nature security is national security"; Barry Gardiner (Labour) said effective action would mean "our energy is cheaper, our health is better, our economy is richer and our world is safer"; Roz Savage (Lib Dems) pressed the Government on "who owns this risk" and when a cross-Government action plan would follow; Neil Hudson (Conservatives) said biodiversity is "very close to our hearts and the hearts of our constituents...crucial to national security." That's four different parties, all making the same case in the same room.
Image: MPs after the debate; Credit: Zero Hour
MPs pictured (back to front, L-R): Brian Mathew, Ellie Chowns, Olly Glover, Sarah Dyke, Martin Wrigley, Danny Chambers, Jeremy Corbyn, Fleur Anderson, Rachel Maskell, Chris Hinchliff, Richard Foord, Kerry McCarthy, Roz Savage, Adrian Ramsay, Neil Hudson, Julia Buckley, Toby Perkins
Jaz, our Communities Manager, was in the room. "It was inspiring to see so many MPs from different parties in the room, calling for action on a range of climate impacts, from food security to nature loss," she says. "And they weren't just standing up to share their own views - many of them were bringing the stories of their constituents to the table, too. This just shows the power of writing to your MP. Your stories - of action in your community, of why you care about these issues, and of your own experiences of the impacts of climate change - give MPs even more of a reason to champion action on climate change and nature loss."
There are hundreds of stories of local action from Great Big Green Week alone. When we started sharing those stories this year, we said it was just a few examples. We weren't exaggerating - dozens more submissions kept landing in our inbox, each one a different community deciding, in its own way, how to celebrate - and take action in - their community. Here are three more from this summer.
Bringing People to the Table: The Hearth Network, Southport
In Southport, a town Nadia Speers-Robinson describes as having "faced real economic challenges," The Hearth Network built its Great Big Green Lunch around a simple idea: sustainability lands differently when it arrives alongside a shared meal. The Sunday event at Southport Market drew local Muslim and Jewish communities alongside long-time residents, with 200 metres of bunting made from textile waste, a seedling planting station, and live music from a ukulele group, a gospel choir and a soloist - all delivered on donated goodwill, from food to labour.
Image: The Great Big Green Lunch; Credit: The Hearth Network
The results have outgrown the day itself. One regular at the group's sewing sessions, who joined after a bereavement, told the team the sessions are "more helpful than counselling" and went on to volunteer at the Lunch, connecting isolated residents to local support services. The event has now been selected as a national case study for the Eden Project's Big Lunch campaign.
"When you bring people to the table, trust builds," Nadia says. "And when trust builds, people are ready to change - not because they've been told to, but because they feel part of something worth protecting."
Image: The Great Big Green Lunch; Credit: The Hearth Network
Fire, Bees and Beavers: Habitat Heroes, Newcastle
At Wild Roots Community Garden in Ouseburn, Northumberland Wildlife Trust's Tom Jepson ran an evening workshop aimed squarely at an age group climate events often miss: 16 to 24-year-olds. Eleven young people from different backgrounds turned up to learn how to garden for wildlife in a city setting - ringbarking pollarded trees to create standing deadwood, drilling nesting holes for solitary bees, and hearing why gardeners need to act like "beavers and bison" to build the mosaic habitats urban wildlife depends on. The evening closed around a fire, where participants wrote down a worry and watched it burn.
"GBGW really means inspiration," Tom says. "It's so amazing to see so many people taking action for nature and being able to be part of a community of change." The Trust plans to keep running sessions connecting young people with nature in new spaces - and is already signed up for 2027.
Image: Young people taking part in the event; Credit: Northumberland Wildlife Trust
Tea, Cake and Climate Robots: Rituals and Robots, Ambleside
Not every Great Big Green Week story looks like a litter pick or a nature walk. In Ambleside, the artist collective behind Future Machine (a touring interactive artwork visiting England every year until 2050, a year scientists flag as a climate watershed) opened its doors for a free drop-in session at the library. Different generations gathered around the table with tea and homemade cake to build "sustainable robots," debate how to power the things we need, and ask what old rituals and stories might teach us about living through what's ahead.
For artist Rachel Jacobs, the value is in who it reaches: "It has been an opportunity to meet new people, connect with existing local communities... and invite new groups who wouldn't normally engage in a creative way with thinking about local and national resilience." The project, run in partnership with Futureproof Cumbria and the local library service, hopes to exhibit a year of this work in 2027, funding permitting.
Image: Attendees at the Rituals and Robots event; Credit: Future Machine
Communities are just getting on with it
A food-sharing charity in Southport, a wildlife workshop in Newcastle, an artist collective in Ambleside - three more different starting points, three more communities that organised, showed up, and built something created to outlast the week itself. Multiply that by the thousands of communities, and you start to see exactly where a packed Westminster Hall actually comes from.
As Dr Neil Hudson (Conservative, Epping Forest) put it in the debate: "Protecting biodiversity and ecosystems is very close to our hearts and the hearts of our constituents, and it is crucial to national security."
MPs raised the range of what's at stake - food security and farming, water quality and nature loss, extreme heat and flooding - but they also raised what needs to happen next: renewable energy, nature-friendly farming, wildlife conservation and more. That action isn’t only happening in Westminster. It's already under way in our communities, during Great Big Green Week and beyond.
Inspired to take action?
Here's how to help keep it going before we build towards Great Big Green Week 2027:
Thank or follow up with your MP
If your MP spoke at the debate, let them know what that meant to you and your community - it means more than you'd think. If they didn't, or you're not sure, this is still a good moment to write - about the debate itself, and about the action already happening on your doorstep. Our short guide has a ready-to-adapt template that takes about ten minutes to send: it'll help you thank or follow up, ask them to back our three calls, make it local, and invite them to mark Great Big Green Week 2027 with you.
Read the guide and write to your MP →
Not sure who your MP is? WriteToThem.com makes it easy to find them and get in touch.
Join our free training programme
Join a community of over 200 organisers already building that future - over six months, we'll support you to build or strengthen a community group that can take action all year round, grow its own leadership, and arrive at Great Big Green Week 2027 ready to make it the biggest and best yet. You'll finish in December with real skills, connections to fellow organisers across the UK, and a concrete plan that's yours to own. We’re at the half way mark now with training, but there’s easy ways to get caught up and take part!
Sign up here and join the community→
And keep an eye out - details of how you can get involved in Great Big Green Week 2027 (5-13 June) will be landing in the coming months. Sign up to the mailing list here to stay on top of all the latest updates.