Collective Action for a Sustainable Future
April 23, 2024
Devika Shah
Executive Director
Environment Funders Canada
Garrick Ng
Senior Advisor
New Power Labs
Devika Shah from Environment Funders Canada joined Garrick Ng from New Power Labs to explore funders' role in advancing environmental causes and how we can foster collective action among funders and climate leaders.
In 2023, Canada produced 23% of the global wildfire carbon emissions.
The urgency of climate change has never been more palpable. Like a fever racing through our body, the planet is heating up, and every fraction of a degree counts gets us closer to a tipping point. We know this, but our pace remains sluggish. How might groups – whether driven by common or different motives – work together to accelerate our collective impact? In our enlightening conversation with Devika, three insights emerged.
1. Climate and environment are among the greatest equity issues of our time.
From a worldwide view, it's evident that certain communities suffer more from climate and environmental problems. These are often not the ones primarily responsible for the damage. This inequality is also seen within cities. Devika mentioned David Hulchanski's research on Toronto, which showed how different neighbourhoods face varying levels of climate change effects, pollution, and lack of access to resources like housing, healthcare, and education.
When we talk about equity, we need to talk about climate and the environment. This shift in framing can help us move out of silos to achieve our goals more effectively. Devika told a story about Uplift’s campaign in the UK, which they orchestrated behind the scenes to stop a big gas development project focusing on energy affordability, without mentioning the words climate change. By emphasizing the broader implications of the gas project beyond just environmental concerns, the campaign underscored the need for coordinated efforts across various groups to address complex issues effectively. In Ontario, we have seen a similar meeting of minds and coordinated action among diverse actors in the reversal of a controversial decision to open up development in protected areas of the Green Belt.
2. For effective collective action, we need to build power to counter vested interests.
Impact pillars – equity, climate, access to capital, housing, etc. — are interconnected and sustainable systemic change requires cross-sectoral collaboration from funders and groups. Devika encouraged us to focus more on building infrastructure and relationships across impact pillars. We build power by doing this, where equity becomes a byproduct of strategic and effective climate action. Equity could be embedded in climate action and become a strategic imperative, not just a moral one.
Each actor plays an important role in advancing climate action. According to Devika, philanthropy and investment capital foster innovation, whereas the government’s job is to help scale up solutions. Individuals play an important role: by simply talking about climate issues, we can help shift narratives and change the political calculus.
3. Open data can help us advance our progress, and we can learn from our neighbour down south.
Environment Funders Canada is releasing a report in early May, outlining the estimated number of dollars that flow towards specific environmental pillars — including pollution, toxins, waste reduction, and agriculture, among others. Devika noted that the US is much more advanced in collecting and analyzing this kind of data, which enables a better understanding of how money flows into specific causes and the extent to which equity-deserving groups are supported. For instance, US data points to a significantly larger proportion of funding being allocated towards movement-organizing and community-led projects.
