Climate Narratives & Policy Change

Data as a Democratic Act.

Al's central question is: who gets to decide what gets counted? He is pioneering "citizen-generated data," where communities design their own questionnaires and use the results to hold governments accountable. By embedding this approach into county governments and statistical units, grassroots data doesn't just inform power, it becomes official policy.

Ashoka Profile

Open Institute

De-risking Political Courage

Through Solutions Journalism, David shifts media from an "apocalyptic" focus to one of "agency and possibilities". He utilizes "Asset Framing," which starts with people's aspirations rather than their deficits, to lower defensive narrative filters. This approach de-risks innovation for leaders by providing the "how-to" evidence and "proof of concept" that solutions are already working elsewhere.

Ashoka Profile

Solutions Journalism Network

Deep Narrative and Quadrant Infrastructure

Ella targets the "undertow" of deep narratives, such as the "human separation from nature," that pulls society back to the status quo despite effective campaigns. Her strategy uses a four-quadrant narrative infrastructure: Told (media), Breathed (ritual), Lived (projects), and Built (physical/digital)—to ensure narratives are reinforced at every level of society.

Mobility is a Climate Issue.

As a young changemaker, Emma is working at Generation Climate Europe, at the crossroads of transportation and public policy, championing a single-ticketing reform that would make train and transit travel cheaper and more compelling than flying. Beyond the policy arena, she brings the same commitment to inclusion to her community work, teaching English and building a multilingual welcome package to help refugees and newcomers find their footing in Brussels.

Tax Pollution, Not People.

Femke advocates for a shift from taxing labor to taxing natural resource use and pollution, and in so doing makes pro-nature, people-powered business models the most profitable choice. Tax can be a force for good, and by working with big tax firms and large businesses across Europe, she’s proving we can win over policymakers, too.  

Ashoka Profile

Ex'Tax

The Language of Power and unusual Allies.

Ignace translates biodiversity into the "language of power" by framing nature as "the best banking company in the world" to influence CEOs. He shifts systems through large-scale litigation (58,000 plaintiffs) and by targeting the insurance sector to stop the financing of fossil fuels

Ashoka Profile

RLKM

Channelling Eco-Anxiety into Climate Action

Jennifer is creating the conditions to channel  eco-anxiety into community-led action. Through a peer-driven movement, she works with young people in the US, Nigeria, France, Italy, and the Netherlands to design their own local solutions while she works to embed their voices in climate policy and get sustainability education into the school curriculum.

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SustyVibes

Food as a Systemic "Portal."

Mónica uses food as an intimate and universal entry point because "everyone eats". She shifts systems by working with municipal governments to drive agroecology through public procurement, highlighting co-benefits like health, jobs, and urban cooling.

Ashoka Profile

Instituto Comida do Amanhã

GirlTREK

Agency Through Data and Citizen Investigation.

Paul focuses on opening investigative processes to the public through independent cloud computing infrastructure and data alliances like "Forest Save". He shifts systems by using gamification with real-world data to engage the public in solving systemic dilemmas like money laundering or deforestation.

Ashoka Profile

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)

Reaching the "Missing Middle"

Philipp believes in philanthropy’s role to highlight the importance of the 'missing middle,' those who are neither activists nor deniers but are disengaged due to daily survival struggles. He shifts systems by moving away from "normative overshoot" toward pragmatic alliances that frame climate action through the lens of European competitiveness and security.

Stiftung Mercator

Meaning-Making over Opinion.

Ryan contends that public will only has leverag over political will through meaning-making. He shifts systems by targeting "middle managers" of trust who are not seen as ideologically extreme, moving them from fleeting opinion to a sense of compulsion to act.

From Individual to Systemic Accountability

As a young changemaker and influencer, Sofia shifted her narrative from individual choices to the responsibilities of states and large companies – bringing strong call to action at every communication.

Culture as the Strategic Tool

Tickell asserts that culture is the "tool" and the "transition" that must sit at the heart of climate action. She shifts systems by embedding culture into National Adaptation Plans and NDCs to validate community and indigenous knowledge. Her narrative focuses on introducing wider metrics of impact, such as beauty, love, joy, and relational impact, to move beyond traditional financial balance sheets.

Ashoka Profile

Julie's Bicycle

Civic Listening Infrastructure

Tewari utilizes "narrative listening" to move beyond "shoveling" content toward being responsive to community needs in real-time. He shifts systems by linking climate action directly to urgent local demands—such as jobs, migration, and children’s health—to build policymaker appetite for ambitious legislation

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Youth Ki Awaaz

De-Jargonizing into Lived Realities

Kulkarni strips away academic jargon like "carbon sequestration" to focus on the "unpredictable weather extremities" that farmers experience firsthand. She shifts systems by using intergenerational narrative mapping to document 60 years of traditional resilient practices. She leverages the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) as a legal backbone to build climate-resilient earthen infrastructure using local materials.

Ashoka Profile

Pragati Abhiyan

Epistemic Security through Open-Source Evidence

Eliot focuses on securing the “infrastructure of knowing together” via the VDA Framework (Verification, Deliberation, Accountability).He shifts systems by building investigative hubs to equip the public with the technical skills to back their beliefs with verified evidence, transforming citizens from passive recipients of information into active investigators. Citizens are the ones to complete the "VDA loop".

Ashoka Profile

Bellingcat

Hacking Myths and Planetary Citizenship

François addresses the imagination crisis by "hacking" myths of origin and moving the story from national borders to "climate citizenship". He shifts systems by advocating for planetary dashboards and aligning global forces like UNESCO to ensure they are taking the interests of future generations into account.

Ashoka Profile

Civilizational Optioneering and Security

Indy views the crisis as "systemic degenerative volatility" and argues for "Civilizational Optioneering"—expanding the available futures for society. He promotes "enlightened self-interest through a systems lens," framing ecology as "Deep Green" security (continuity of energy, water, and food) to build unusual allies like the military.

Dark Matter Labs

Bottom-Up Resilience and "Puppet-Proofing"

Laura focuses on building citizen resistance to disinformation by revealing how digital platforms manipulate attention for profit. She "puppet-proofs" individuals by providing knowledge that allows them to recognize when politicians are lying to them. Her strategy targets the "missing middle" (the 50%+1 majority) to build a focused political mandate for change.

Ashoka Profile

Factchequeado

Empathetic and Relatable Storytelling

As a young changemaker, Luca focuses on making climate narratives relatable to "average people" through jargon-free language that fosters empathy. He shifts systems by advocating for new types of local institutions where citizens can debate city-specific climate problems like urban pollution.

SeaTheChange

Saving the Mind to Save the Planet

Markus identifies the climate crisis as a "collective mental disorder" where society disassociates from its own self-destructive behaviors. His strategy shifts the narrative from "vulnerable patients" to "peers and tutors" with a "maker" identity through functional groups like gardening or art. He uses joyful contribution to build the internal agency and emotional resilience needed to act.

Ashoka Profile

Kukunori

Conspiring with Collapse

Nathalia focuses on "disaster companionship" and cultivating the capacity to affect and be affected by environmental shifts. She uses unconventional images of care (e.g., kids and women working with fire) to transform the social imaginary of how we relate to nature.

Cultivating Longing via "Throughtopia."

Rob argues that activism fails when it focuses solely on information; instead, he focuses on the "cultivation of longing" for a better future. He tells "throughtopian" stories that highlight "weak signals": real-world examples of the future already functioning today to build bridges between community imagination and municipal reality.

The Power of Joy and Friendship

Tristram advocates for making the climate movement a "bigger, better party" that upcycles anger and grief into vibrant life. He uses food waste as a strategic entry point to meet people where they are and connect their hearts to the earth through companionship and love.

Ashoka Fellow

Intergenerational Agency and Humor

Vanessa uses joy, humor, and superheroes to give children the emotional resilience to act. Her strategy involves using children to "bug their parents" to change household behaviors, which she observed shifted the political landscape at the municipal level after a decade of engagement.

Ashoka Fellow

Planet Protector Society

Democracy as a Transnational Fight

Authoritarians share playbooks across borders; pro-democracy forces don't. Yordanos' is building the infrastructure to close that gap, connecting democracy entrepreneurs across Brazil, India, South Africa, and the US to rapidly exchange tactics: from countering disinformation to mobilizing multiracial coalitions. She's betting that cross-border solidarity is the one asymmetric advantage champions of democracy haven't yet used.

Ashoka Fellow

Keseb