Volunteer Empowerment Program

The first Citizens’ Climate Lobby local chapter was created in October 2007, in San Diego California. Since then, CCL has spread to 76 countries on 6 continents. Local volunteer chapters gather in small groups to speak with a common voice to public officials, about the urgent need to confront the climate crisis, and about ways to do so that will benefit people and strengthen national economies.

Citizens’ Climate International was formed in January 2021, to provide structured education and support to volunteers and partner organizations around the world. We support volunteers’ efforts by providing always active free education in science, policy, economics, communications, and civics. Citizens’ Climate volunteers work together, using Five Levers of Building Political Will:

  1. Local chapter & volunteer development—The beating heart of CCI civics and education work is the local volunteer chapter. We support local groups of volunteers, and work to build climate advocacy and civic engagement skills.
  2. Grassroots engagement—Our local volunteer chapters organize events, join larger events, and provide community education on the economics, science, and policy response to climate change.
  3. Grasstops engagement—We seek to educate, build partnerships with and gain the support of trusted community leaders and non-governmental organizations, both nationally and locally.
  4. Media relations—We train citizen volunteers to engage with local and national media. This can include letters to the editor and opinion articles, meetings with newspaper editorial boards, and engagement with radio and television.
  5. Meeting with public officials—We train citizen volunteers to work in teams, to advocate for effective science-based climate policy, through friendly working relationships with their own representatives in government.

Our global network of citizen volunteer policy advocates is organized with the support of:

  • Local groups and Group Leaders
  • National networks of local groups
  • International Regional Coordinators

All receive substantive and coordinating support from CCI staff and our partners at CCE and CCL. Some are also supported by national or regional nonprofit organizations working under the Citizens’ Climate name, in service of the CCI Mission.

CCI NDC Collaborative

We cannot afford, even in the next few months and years, to keep expanding the reach of destructive and unsustainable practices. Too much is at stake, as heat records are broken, water and food supplies put at risk, and climate-induced destabilization becoming more likely around the world. What we decide now may well shape the conditions in which human beings live for millennia to come, deciding for them whether security, prosperity, and the protection of basic rights and wellbeing, are possible at all. 

CCI volunteer chapters work to build awareness of the need for action, and of the solutions that can drive transformation and support climate-resilient development. In 2023, we are launching a strategic initiative to support citizen volunteers in directly inputting into the process of upgrading nationally determined contributions to the global climate crisis response (NDCs).

The best-designed and most durable NDCs, with the best chance to serve as foundations for the future security, prosperity, and wellbeing of a country, cannot be only top-down exercises. They must have roots in community experience, in the ways in which people and nature interact locally, regionally, culturally, and with an integrated and holistic approach to connecting science insights to human experience and ingenuity.

As the first Global Stocktake on progress toward Paris Agreement goals plays out, we aim to provide locally rooted, stakeholder-driven insights about the most viable path to successful climate-resilient development. This will entail direct engagement with public officials and media. It will involve local observer testimony, stakeholder convening, and policy recommendations.

Read more

2022 Year in Review

In 2022, CCI provided education and empowerment to volunteer chapters in 76 countries. Our volunteers welcomed new members, trained and supported each other, and worked on Five Levers for building political will: chapter development; meeting with public officials; media relations; community engagement; connecting with trusted leaders. To support their work:

  • In January 2022, we started a series of monthly check-in calls for volunteer leaders, on the 2nd Tuesday of every month.
  • We held our first global Month of Action and created a new Volunteer Activity reporting form, to gather reports from the field.
  • We also established a new CCI Newsletter—including monthly ‘Shape your world’ editions—as a detailed and trusted information resource for people inside our organization and our wider community of friends and allies.

We highlight here just a few examples of their CCI volunteers’ empowered civic engagement:

  • Volunteers in Nigeria led community education and engagement events and gathered to meet with lawmakers, to share stakeholder insights on policies that can be good for climate, recovery, and sustainable development.
  • Volunteers in Zimbabwe supported the Manica Youth Assembly (MAYA)—a non-profit, community-based effort to empower young people and women to participate in public affairs and implement solutions, and held a national Tree-Planting Day event in Mutare, in December.
  • Rituraj Phukan, leader of the CCI volunteer chapter in Assam, India, was recently honored with a Sanctuary Wildlife Service Award as one of “the heroes whose steps we hope many more will follow,” the Sanctuary Nature Foundation said.
  • Volunteers in Latin America organized 70 events to spread awareness and build political will—including 12 capacity building workshops, 19 reading and film discussions, presentations in national, regional, and international forums, coalition building events, blogs, meeting with lawmakers, and implementation of the Escazú Agreement.
  • Volunteers in Canada held a national conference, met with provincial and national lawmakers, and marked a watershed moment, as Canada became the first nation to send climate income cheques directly to citizens.
  • Alex Neufeldt and Sophia Mathur, two CCL Canada volunteers, were among those whose environmental activism was honored with the 2022 Doris Anderson award.
  • Volunteers in the United Kingdom produced a major report on Carbon Pricing and the Cost of Living Crisis, finding the right policy design could relieve inflation pressures and address energy poverty, while transitioning the UK more quickly to a climate-friendly energy system.
  • Citizens’ Climate Europe volunteers worked to build coalitions of support for carbon pricing policies that are good for people and local economies.

June 2022 Month of Action

During the month of June 2022, volunteers across six continents joined our first Citizens’ Climate International Month of Action. Throughout the month, volunteer activities focused on moving the Five Levers, in particular by meeting with public officials, to address climate policy response from their perspective as stakeholders. We also focused on training and capacity building for the deeper development of our volunteers and local chapters.

The CCI Month of Action was a global, hybrid event, offering volunteers the opportunity to:

  1. Schedule direct policy discussions with public officials
  2. Spread their message in local media
  3. Organize, if they choose, educational meetings in their communities
  4. Connect with trusted leaders, to build political will locally
  5. Engage in focused trainings to develop their volunteers’ skills

The content of activities in these five areas drew from and connected to CCI’s other programs, enhancing volunteers’ efforts to achieve stronger climate policy, by connecting to multilateral processes, fine-tuned carbon pricing policies, and tools for resilience-building sustainable development.

As the impacts of climate disruption proliferate and compound, damaging lives and livelihoods, we need to rapidly accelerate climate policy development and deployment, at all levels, everywhere. Our volunteer policy advocates are working year-round to shift political will toward the actions and investments needed to secure a livable future that leaves no one behind.

Regions & Chapters

Africa

Bénin
BEN Porto-Novo – Porto-Novo (Active)

Burundi
BDI Burundi – Bujumbura (Active)

Burkina Faso
BKF Ouagadougou – Ouagadougou (Active)

Chad/Tchad
TCD N’djaména – N’djaména (Active)

Côte d’Ivoire
CIV Abidjan – Abidjan (Active)

Cameroon
CMR Bamenda – Bamenda (Active)
CMR Garoua – Garoua (Active)
CMR Yauode – Yauode (Active)

Democratic Republic of the Congo
DRC Goma – Goma (Active)
DRC Matadi – Matadi (Active)

Gabon
GAB Libreville – Libreville (Active)

Ghana
GHA Accra – Accra (In Progress)
GHA Kumasi – Kumasi (Active)

The Gambia
GMB Banjul – Banjul (Active)

Guinea
GUI Conakry – Conakry (Active)

Kenya
KEN Nairobi – Nairobi (In Progress)

Liberia
LIB Monrovia – Monrovia (Active)

Madagascar
MAD Antananarivo – Antananarivo (Active)

Mali
MAL Bamako – Bamako (In Progress)

Mauritius
MRU Port Louis – Port Louis (In Progress)

Mozambique
MOZ Vila ulongue – Vila ulongue (Active)

Malawi
MWI Blantyre – Blantyre (In Progress)

Niger
NER Niamey – Niamey (Active)

Nigeria
NGA Abuja – Abuja (Active)
NGA Benin City – Benin (Active)
NGA Cano – Cano (In Progress)
NGA Enugu – Enugu (Active)
NGA Kaduna
 – Kaduna (Active)
NGA Lagos – Lagos (Active)
NGA Niger-Delta – Uyo Akwa Ibom (Active)
NGA Shiroro – Shiroro Nigeria (Active)
NGA Umuahia – Umuahia (In Progress)
NGA UniAbuja – Abuja (Active)

Rwanda
RWA Kigali – Kigali (Active)

South Africa
SAF Capetown – Capetown (In Progress)
SAF Pretoria – Pretoria (Active)

Senegal
SEN Dakar – Dakar (In Progress)

Sierra Leone
SL Freetown – Freetown (Active)

Tanzania
TZA Dar es Salaam – Dar es Salaam (In Progress)
TZA Dodoma – Dodoma (Active)

Togo
TOG Lome – Lome (Active)

Uganda
UGA Kampala – Kampala (Active)

Zambia
ZAM Lusaka – Lusaka, Zambia (Active)

Zimbabwe
ZIM Mutare – Mutare (Active)

Asia

Bangladesh
BGD Barishal – Barisal (Active)
BGD Chattogram – Chattogram (Active)
BGD Dhaka – Dhaka (Active)
BGD Rangpur – Rangpur (Active)
BGD Sylhet – Sylhet (Active)

Hong Kong
HK Wan Chai – Wan Chai District (In Progress)

India
IND Bangalore – Bangalore (Active)
IND Chandigarh – Chandigarh (In Progress)
IND Chennai – Chennai (Active)
IND Dehradun – Dehradun (In Progress)
IND Hyderabad – Hyderabad (In Progress)
IND Kolkata – Kolkata (In Progress)
IND Madurai – Madurai (In Progress)
IND Mumbai – Mumbai (Active)
IND New Delhi – New Delhi (Active)
IND Northeast India – Guwahati (Active)
IND Odisha – Odisha (Active)
IND Patna – Patha (In Progress)
IND Thiruvananthapuram – Thiruvananthapuram (In Progress)
IND Tiruchirappalli – Tiruchirappalli (In Progress)
IND Uttar Pradesh – Uttar Pradesh (Active)

Japan
JPN Tokyo – Tokyo (Active)

Myanmar
MMR Diaspora – Global group (Active)

Nepal
NPL Chitwan – Chitwan (In Progress)
NPL Kathmandu – Kathmandu (In Progress)
NPL Nepalgunj – Nepalgunj (In Progress)

Pakistan
PAK Faisalabad – Faisalabad (Active)
PAK Islamabad – Islamabad (In Progress)
PAK Lahore – Lahore (Active)

Singapore
SGP Singapore – Singapore (In Progress)

Europe

Austria
AT Vienna – Vienna (In Progress)

Belgium
BEL Brussels – Brussels (Active)

Bulgaria
BUL Sofia – Sofia (In Progress)

Switzerland
CHE Zug – Zug (In Progress)

Denmark
DEN Copenhagen
 – Copenhagen (Active)

Spain
ESP Madrid – Madrid (Active)

France
FRA Paris – Paris (Active)

Germany
GER Berlin – Berlin (Active)
GER Duesseldorf – Duesseldorf (In Progress)
GER Hamburg – Hamburg (Active)
GER Munich – Munich (Active)
GER Rostock – Rostock (Active)

Greece
GRC Athens – Athens (In Progress)

Ireland
IRL Ireland – Dublin (In Progress)
IRL Tralee – Tralee (In Progress)

Iceland
ISL Reykjavik – Reykjavik (In Progress)

Italy
ITA Milan – Rome (In Progress)

Netherlands
NLD Amsterdam – Amsterdam (Active)

Norway
NOR Oslo – Oslo (Active)

Poland
POL Krakow – Krakow (Active)

Portugal
PRT Lisbon – Lisbon (Active)

Romania
ROM Timisoara – Timisoara (In Progress)

Serbia
SER Belgrade – Belgrade (In Progress)

Sweden
SWE Bromma – Stockholm (Active)
SWE Gothenburg – Gothenburg (Active)
SWE Jonkoping – Jönköping (Active)
SWE Malmo – Malmo (Active)
SWE Stockholm Soder – Stockholm (Active)
SWE Uppsala – Uppsala (Active)

United Kingdom
UK Devizes – Wiltshire (Active)
UK Edinburgh – Edinburgh (Active)
UK Glasgow – Glasgow (In Progress)
UK London – London (Active)

Latin America

Argentina
ARG Buenos Aires
 Buenos Aires (In Progress)

Brazil
BRA Brasília – Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro (In Progress)
BRA Sao Paulo – Sao Paulo (In Progress)

Chile
CHL Santiago
Santiago (Active)

Colombia
COL Bogota
Bogota (Active)

Hondorus
HN Tegucigalpa
 Tegucigalpa (In Progress)

Mexico
MEX Mexico City
 Mexico City (Active)

Panama
PAN Panama City
Panama City (Active)

Peru
PE Lima – Lima (In Progress)

Venezuala
VEN Caracas
 Caracas (In Progress)

Middle East and North Africa

Morocco
MOR Casablanca – Casablanca (Active)


Tunisia

TUN Tunis – Tunis (In Progress)

Oceania

New Zealand:
NZL Auckland – Auckland (Active)

Australia:
AUS ACT Bean – Tuggeranong, 2900 (Active)
AUS ACT Canberra – Civic, ‎2601, ACT (Active)
AUS ACT Fenner – Gungahlin, 2912 (Active)
AUS NSW Banks – Revesby, 2212, NSW (Active)
AUS NSW Barton – Kogarah, 2217, NSW (Active)
AUS NSW Bennelong – Epping, 2121, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Berowra – Pennant Hills, 2120, NSW (Active)
AUS NSW Blaxland – Bankstown, 2200, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Bradfield – Lindfield, 2070, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Chifley – Mt Druitt, 2770, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Cook – Cronulla, 2230, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Cowper – Coffs Harbour, 2450, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Cunningham – Wollongong, 2500, NSW (Active)
AUS NSW Dobell – Tuggerah, 2259, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Eden-Monaro – Queanbeyan, 2620, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Fowler – Cabramatta, 2166, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Gilmore – Nowra, 2541, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Grayndler – Marrickville, 2204, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Greenway – Seven Hills, 2147, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Hughes – Sutherland, 2232, NSW (Active)
AUS NSW Hume – Goulburn, 2580, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Kingsford Smith – Maroubra, 2035, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Lyne – Port Macquarie, 2444, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Macarthur – Camden, 2570, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Mackellar – Narrabeen, 2101, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Macquarie – Windsor, 2756, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Mitchell – Castle Hill, 2154, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW New England – Tamworth, 2340, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Newcastle – Newcastle, 2300, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW North Sydney – North Sydney, 2060, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Page – Lismore, 2480, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Parkes – Dubbo, 2830, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Parramatta – Parramatta, 2150, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Paterson – Raymond Terrace, 2324, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Reid – Burwood, 2134, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Richmond – Tweed Heads, 2486, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Robertson – Gosford, 2250, NSW (Active)
AUS NSW Sydney – Sydney 2000, NSW (Active)
AUS NSW Warringah – Manly, 2095, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Watson – Roselands, 2196, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Wentworth – Edgecliff, 2027, NSW (In Progress)
AUS NSW Whitlam – Dapto, 2530, NSW (Active)
AUS NT Lingiari – Alice Springs, 0870, NT (In Progress)
AUS Qld Blair – Brassall, 4305, QLD (In Progress)
AUS Qld Bonner – Wynnum, 4178, QLD (In Progress)
AUS Qld Bowman – Cleveland, 4163, QLD (In Progress)
AUS Qld Brisbane – Brisbane, 4000, QLD (In Progress)
AUS Qld Dawson – Mackay, 4740, QLD (In Progress)
AUS Qld Fairfax – Maroochydore, 4558, QLD (Active)
AUS Qld Fisher – Bokarina, 4575, QLD (In Progress)
AUS Qld Flynn – Gladstone, 4680, QLD (In Progress)
AUS Qld Forde – Beenleigh, 4207, QLD (In Progress)
AUS Qld Groom – Toowoomba, 4350, QLD (In Progress)
AUS Qld Hinkler – Bundaberg, 4670, QLD (In Progress)
AUS Qld Leichhardt – Cairns, 4870, QLD (In Progress)
AUS Qld Maranoa – Dalby, 4405, QLD (In Progress)
AUS Qld McPherson – Varsity Lakes, 4227, QLD (In Progress)
AUS Qld Moreton – Sunnybank, 4109, QLD (In Progress)
AUS Qld Wide Bay – Maryborough, 4650, QLD (In Progress)
AUS SA Adelaide – North Adelaide 5006, SA (In Progress)
AUS SA Boothby – Marion, 5043, SA (Active)
AUS SA Mayo – Mount Barker, 5251, SA (In Progress)
AUS SA Spence – Smithfield, 5114, SA (In Progress)
AUS SA Sturt – St Morris, 5068, SA (In Progress)
AUS Tas Bass – Launceston, 7250 (In Progress)
AUS Tas Clark – Hobart, 7001, TAS (In Progress)
AUS Tas Franklin – Rosny Park, 7018, TAS (In Progress)
AUS Tas Lyons – Perth, 7300, TAS (In Progress)
AUS Vic Ballarat – Ballarat, 3350, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Bendigo – Bendigo, 3550, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Bruce – Mulgrave, 3170, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Cooper – Preston, 3072, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Corangamite – Waurn Ponds, 3216, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Corio – Geelong, 3220, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Dunkley – Frankston, 3199, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Gellibrand – Footscray, 3011, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Goldstein – Bentleigh, 3204, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Holt – Fountain Gate, 3805, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Hotham – Clayton, 3168, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Jagajaga – Heidelberg, 3084, VIC (Active)
AUS Vic Kooyong – Camberwell, 3124, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic La Trobe – Berwick, 3806, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Macnamara – St Kilda, 3182, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Mallee – Mildura, 3500, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Maribyrnong – Moonee Ponds, 3039, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Melbourne – Fitzroy, 3065, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Menzies – Doncaster, 3108, VIC (In Progress)
AUS Vic Monash – Warragul, Vic, 3820 (In Progress)
AUS Vic Wills – Coburg, 3058, VIC (In Progress)
AUS WA Burt – Kelmscott (Active)
AUS WA Canning – Cockburn, 6164, WA (In Progress)
AUS WA Durack – Geraldton, 6530, WA (In Progress)
AUS WA Forrest – Bunbury, 6230, WA (In Progress)
AUS WA Fremantle – Fremantle, 6160, WA (Active)
AUS WA Hasluck – Forrestfield, 6058, WA (Active)
AUS WA OConnor – Kalgoorlie, 6430, WA (Active)
AUS WA Pearce – Ellenbrook, 6069, WA (Active)
AUS WA Perth – Perth, 6000, WA (In Progress)
AUS WA Stirling – Innaloo, 6018, WA (In Progress)
AUS WA Swan – Victoria Park, 6101, WA (In Progress)
AUS WA Tangney – Willetton, 6155, WA (Active)

Canada, the Caribbean and the USA

Belize
BLZ Independence– Independence (In Progress)

Dominican Republic
DOM Saint-Domingue – Saint-Domingue (Active)

Haiti
HT Port-au-Prince – Port-au-Prince (In Progress)

Canada
CAN Abbottsford – Abbottsford (Active)
CAN Annapolis Valley – Southwest Nova Scotia (Active)
CAN Belleville – Belleville (In Progress)
CAN Brampton – Brampton, ON (In Progress)
CAN Burlington – Burlington ON (Active)
CAN Calgary – Calgary, AB (Active)
CAN Central Nova – Antigonish (In Progress)
CAN Clearwater – Clearwater, BC (Active)
CAN Dauphin – Onanole, MB (Active)
CAN Drummondville – Drummondville Quebec (In Progress)
CAN Durham Region – Ajax (Active)
CAN East Kootenay – Cranbrook (In Progress)
CAN Edmonton – Edmonton, AB (Active)
CAN Fredericton – Fredericton, NB (In Progress)
CAN Greater Sudbury – Sudbury, ON (Active)
CAN Guelph – Guelph, ON (Active)
CAN Haliburton – Haliburton, ON (In Progress)
CAN Halifax – Halifax, NS (Active)
CAN Hamilton – Hamilton, ON (Active)
CAN Huron County – Clinton ON, ON (In Progress)
CAN Kenora – Kenora, ON (Active)
CAN Kingston – Kingston (In Progress)
CAN Kitchener Waterloo – Kitchener, ON (Active)
CAN Lanark – Kingston, ON (Active)
CAN Leeds-Grenville – Brockville (Active)
CAN Les Cedres – Les Cedres, QC (Active)
CAN London – London, ON (In Progress)
CAN Manitoulin – Sheguiandah, ON (Active)
CAN Mississauga – Mississauga, ON (Active)
CAN Montreal – Montreal, QC (Active)
CAN Muskoka-Parry Sound – Huntsville, ON (Active)
CAN National Capital Region – Ottawa, ON (Active)
CAN Nelson – West Kootenay – Nelson, BC (Active)
CAN Newmarket – Newmarket, ON (In Progress)
CAN Niagara Region – Niagara Region, ON (Active)
CAN North Bay Ontario – North Bay, ON (Active)
CAN Oakville – Oakville (Active)
CAN Okanagan – Kelowna (Active)
CAN Orangeville – Orangeville, ON (In Progress)
CAN PEI – Charlottetown, PE (In Progress)
CAN Peterborough – Peterborough (Active)
CAN Regina – Regina (In Progress)
CAN Renfrew – Renfrew, ON (In Progress)
CAN Salt Spring Island – Salt Spring Island, BC (Active)
CAN Saskatoon – Saskatoon, SK (In Progress)
CAN Scarborough – Scarborough (Active)
CAN Southern Alberta – Lethbridge, AB (Active)
CAN Stephenville – Stephenville Newfoundland (Active)
CAN St Johns – St. John’s, NL (Active)
CAN Sunshine Coast – Sushine Coast, BC (In Progress)
CAN Surrey – Surrey (Active)
CAN Thunder Bay – Neebing, ON (Active)
CAN Toronto Downtown – Toronto Downtown (Active)
CAN Toronto East – Toronto East (Active)
CAN Toronto North – Toronto North (Active)
CAN Toronto West – Toronto West (Active)
CAN Vancouver – Vancouver, BC (Active)
CAN Vaughan – Kleinburg, ON (Active)
CAN Victoria and Greater Region – Victoria, BC (Active)
CAN Wellington-Halton – Erin, ON (Active)
CAN Winnipeg – Winnipeg, MB (Active)
CAN Wolfville – Wolfville (In Progress)

The USA:
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