We've got this

The climate apology is a three-step process of self-reflection to encourage people to reduce their consumption and vote for effective mitigation measures based on their love and responsibility for the people in their lives.

Self-help tool

It’s a self-help tool commensurate with the climate crisis

It personalises climate change by anchoring it firmly in our most important relationships, crystalising the impact of my personal decisions around consumption and political engagement on the climate future of our loved ones.
It moves deliberately away from nudges, incentives and positive messaging and asks us to turn and face the science.
It confronts us with a demand to examine our own responsibility for the climate future of those we love.
It is intrinsically positive in its belief in the courage of individuals to face the climate crisis honestly, and in the influence and importance of individual action on the social, economic and political systems that drive carbon and methane emissions.

It’s a self-help tool that reflects the findings of climate psychology

Environmentally friendly behaviours are characterised by empathy, a strong sense of personal responsibility and altruism, three traits fostered by the climate apology:

Recognise the harm facing our loved ones by listening to their concerns about their climate future and by observing the changing climate around us. This brings climate change directly into our homes, encouraging empathy that can be directed towards our loved ones as well as ourselves.
Acknowledge our role in the systems that drive climate change and the mistakes we've made - even when we never intended harm. This fosters my self-responsibility as a citizen and consumer.
Change your climate behaviours. Act altruistically as a citizen and consumer in the climate interests of those you love by drastically reducing our consumption across the board, and demanding our governments enact the laws required for climate mitigation. It is a shift in mindset of sustinable living.

The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.

The how to

We all know how to apologise – more or less. As with any effective apology, the climate apology aims to change the behaviours that have caused harm. If the idea rings true for you, apologise to your loved ones in your own way – whether you verbalise it or internalise it, whether you direct your empathy to your loved ones or yourself is largely irrelevant. What is essential is that we finally shoulder our responsibility for our role in the climate-relevant systems and take the steps science has been telling us to take for the last 50 years.

Systems thinking

Rooted in systems thinking, it understands that our individual actions – as citizens and consumers, loved ones and friends, workers and professionals, managers and team members, social media users – are an essential piece of the highly complex puzzle of climate mitigation. Without our actions, we can’t solve the puzzle.

Rooted in internal family systems theory, it portrays the gap between our environmental intentions and our climate behaviours as an inner voice – our armchair environmentalist – that wants to keep us safe in the status quo of what we know. An important aspect of the climate apology is recognising our armchair environmentalist and the excuses it gives us not to act in the climate interests of our loved ones.

The symbol of the climate apology

The Triskelion is an ancient symbol that first appeared in Malta around 4,000 BC and is closely associated with the Celtic history of Ireland. As a symbol from European antiquity, it reminds us that global warming is largely the result of the growth-centred economic models and consumption patterns of the global north.

Its spirals represent the three phases of the climate apology: recognition, acknowledgement and change. It symbolises the elements of earth, water and air that we need to survive. It represents our intrinsic connection to others, now, in the past and the future.

Let’s act as individual consumers and citizens to ensure that we can pass down this symbol to our kids and grand-kids as it has been passed down to us.

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04/15/2024

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Student feedback on the climate apology workshop

The climate apology aims to contribute to long-term mindset change, recognised in the IPCC and UN climate reports as essential to addressing the climate crisis. Changing attitudes is highly complex, requiring a range of tools and interventions that can be repeated over time. Clearly, a single workshop can’t achieve this. However, the feedback from high school students shows the potential of the climate apology as a tool worth trying in a workshop setting and exploring as a public awareness campaign.

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01/05/2024

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Climate action - call it what it is

"Euphemism is a human device to conceal the horrors of reality", wrote British journalist and historian Paul Johnson. Governments have to regulate the fossil fuel industry is our climate euphemism. It conveniently masks the responsibility we all face to make unwelcome, inconvenient moral choices.

Louise Rapaud

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The climate apology