Community Solidarity Is an Act of Climate Preparedness

By Esther Whitehead (Climate Co-Lead Funders Commitment on Climate Action)

We are living in a curious, fascinating period of societal transition. It’s a time marked largely by uncertainty and (for the optimists) opportunity — the acknowledgement of old systems that no longer serve societies and the slow emergence and embedding of something new.

The words ‘Just transition’ leave us cold; they don’t conjure up emotions. But make no mistake: the way we navigate this transition will shape the world our children inherit.

At its heart, the climate crisis is not just about carbon, we know that! It’s about people, justice, and importantly, the systems we choose to uphold or dismantle. If we don’t radically rethink our societal and economic structures, the transition we are currently living through will deepen existing inequalities.

Climate impacts don’t fall equally — they hit hardest where people are already struggling. This is well evidenced. That’s why, in Aotearoa and globally, we must make this transition Tika — just, right, and fair. In te ao Māori, Tika is a value that carries deep weight: it’s about doing what is ethically correct, what aligns with our responsibilities to each other, to whenua, and future generations. This is why mātauranga Māori holds value alongside Western science.

A question I get asked all the time is:Why is Tika/Te Tiriti o Waitangi important in climate literacy?

The answer is simple but powerful: because understanding the climate crisis without understanding justice leads to solutions that can reinforce harm. Climate literacy grounded in Tika ensures that we learn not just the science, but the responsibilities — to each other, to place, and to those most affected. It shifts the focus from technical fixes to collective, ethical action focusing on equity. Te Tiriti o Waitangi is central to land and environmental governance in Aotearoa and without proper acknowledgement and honouring of this document and its promises, the environment will continue to suffer (ODG 2022; Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment 1988;2002).

The term Just Transition might sound bureaucratic, but its roots are anything but cold. It emerged from frontline labour and environmental justice movements, particularly in the United States, where trade unions and activists, many representing communities of colour, demanded that the shift away from fossil fuels not leave workers and communities behind. It was a rallying cry for fairness, born out of deep empathy and collective struggle. Today, it’s taken up around the world to ensure climate action is not only ambitious but compassionate.

In Aotearoa, to speak of a Just Transition without centring Tika — and the lived realities of Māori, Pacific peoples, disabled communities, and others who are structurally marginalised — is to miss the point entirely. These are the very communities that will feel the sharpest edge of climate impacts. Rising food and energy costs, unaffordable housing, flooding in low-lying suburbs — the list is long and unjustly familiar.

So, what can we do?

Whatever we do to rebuild community solidarity — whether that’s hosting a neighbourhood hui, planting a community garden, checking in on kaumātua during a storm, or supporting local rangatahi to lead climate initiatives — you are preparing for climate change. You are building the social fabric that we will all depend on in times of disruption.

True climate preparedness doesn’t start with infrastructure — it starts with relationships. It starts with recognising those most vulnerable, listening deeply, and putting equity at the centre of every decision. It starts with asking, Is this Tika? And if not, what would make it so? Because we don’t just want to survive the transition. We want to emerge from it more connected and more resilient than we were before.