(continued from my previous blog post)

When Nynne Holm and I came to realize that Denmark was (as of October 2007) without a popular movement against global warming, we decided to take on the challenge of starting one ourselves, despite feeling quite insecure due to our almost total lack of experience.

Role of a Climate Movement

We (together with a few more people) started by envisioning what the role of a new Climate Movement would be, i.e. the niche that it would occupy -- which turned out to be a pretty damn big niche.

• A broad popular movement, open and welcoming to all
  • laypersons and experts
  • all ages, genders, and classes
  • non-partisan and not bound to any political ideology (Denmark currently has eight parties in its parliament, ranging from far-right nationalists to the left revolutionary Red-Green Alliance through liberals and social-democrats)
• Constantly seeks to grow
  • grows in numbers
  • grows in commitment
  • reaches out
    • to all parts of the country, not just the traditional environmental bastions (e.g. the capital, Copenhagen)
  • to constituencies not traditionally associated with environmental concern
  • mobilizes all the currently climate-conscious Danes
  • increases climate-consciousness in others
• Transfers energy
  • from the personal, where many citizens are already committed to "contributing"
  • to the common and political, where much of that energy could better be used
• Time horizon:
  • Medium-term milestone: The Copenhagen Climate Summit in December 2009 (to replace the Kyoto agreements) i.e. 2 years from the Climate Movement's inception
  • Long term: 2030, by which time annual emissions of greenhouse gasses must be reduced to more or less 1 ton CO2eq per person, if we are to avoid runaway global warming.

Organizational goals

We then identified "internal", or "organizational" goals, first addressing the issue of growth:

• A movement that grows in numbers year after year
  • end 2008: 1000 members
  • end 2009: 5000 members (Copenhagen Climate summit)
  • end 2010: 10000 members
  • end 2011: 25000 members ...
  • These goals seemed extremely ambitious - remember that Denmark has a population of roughly 5.5 million, i.e. quite a bit smaller than the largest US cities
• A movement that spreads geographically (The initiative started in Copenhagen, the nation's capital)
  • Establishment of many local groups within our first year of existence
  • in the large cities (Århus, Odense, Aalborg... large by Danish standards!)
  • in smaller towns

We also had to address the "internal" issue of growing commitment. What principles would guide us in order to ensure that a large portion of members become active, and not just have a tiny, isolated, hyperactive leadership with a large body of passive supporters with declining interest?

• A movement that allows and encourages members to become stronger and smarter
  • around
  • climate-related science and politics
  • building a popular movement
  • through an continuous, active effort in
  • Internal knowledge sharing
  • Skill development

External goals

Then looking at "external" roles and goals, we identified:

• Organising activities aimed at:
  • the Danish population
  • dissemination of knowledge
  • discussion and debate
  • mobilization
  • decision-makers
  • dialog
  • campaigns
  • actions
• Cooperate with the current environmental organizations in the fight against climate change
  • Contribute active members to their work
  • Use the knowledge resources they have built
  • Joint campaigns
• Link up with organizations from other countries
• Help spark the rise of popular Climate Movements in other countries

The resulting Climate Movement

The result of these envisioned efforts would be that:

• The Climate Movement is a growing force, which decision-makers have to take into account on many levels:
  • in the media
  • in political dialog
  • in campaigns aimed at business
  • on the street
• It will become less troublesome for decision-makers to adopt an adequate climate policy than to oppose or ignore the Climate Movement!

I have to note that in the discussions that led to the formulation of this vision and "grand strategy", I was quite inspired by Michael Albert's writings (and talks available online), as some of you may have noticed from the concepts presented here.

In my next post, I will address how we went about implementing these ideas more concretely into what became the structure of the Climate Movement in Denmark (Klimabevægelsen i Danmark). This structure is continuously evolving, but it does contain some features worth noting, with some deserving praise, and some, critique.


Write us at info@klimabevaegelsen.dk
www.klimabevaegelsen.dk