DEMOCRACY + MIGRATION + CLIMATE CHANGE
Rebuild by Design is partnering with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to examine the implications of climate change on strategic efforts made by organizing groups, civic engagement organizations, and structural democratic transformation groups. The Political Climate Adaptation project is designed to support grassroots civic engagement and power-building organizations as they adapt their organizing strategies to become more resilient to address the inevitable topographical changes, demographic shifts, and disaster response needs. This impacts how people engage with and influence governance systems in the United States.
As grassroots organizations advance toward success, they must continue to build political power, and in the United States, political power is expressed through voting. Voting is organized geographically, and our geographies are permanently changing.
Image above: Matt Dixon, Pittsburgh PA through WikiCommons
CLIMATE events exasperate inequities
DISPLACEMENT
Climate change is expected to displace 13 million coastal residents by 2100. Already, more than three million Americans lost their housing in 2022 due to a climate disaster (Bittle, 2023)
MORTALITY
The Environmental Protection Agency reported that Black people are 40% more likely than non-Black people to live in areas with the highest projected increase in mortality rates due to extreme temperatures (2021)
ECONOMIC
After federal aid has been distributed to communities that have experienced a disaster, predominantly white, well-educated home-owners experience a significant increase in wealth. Conversely, communities of color, particularly renters with less education those who are less educated renters, experience a decline in wealth (Howell & Elliott).
GENDER
80% of people displaced by climate change globally are women (UN Environment).
AGE
In the United States, extreme weather has displaced over 1.7 million children from 2016-2021 (Statista)
MIGRATION
In 2025, 250,000 people moved out of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. (eEnews)
POLITICAL CLIMATE ADAPTATION CONVENING
In November 2023, Rebuild by Design and the Rockefeller Brothers fund hosted an initial Political Climate Adaptation Convening to consider how to support movement-building organizations and their political strategies in becoming more resilient to climate change’s impacts, including displacement and migration.
Over 20 organizations that work on democracy-building, organizing, and philanthropy came together to discuss the intersections of democracy and climate change, and how climate change will affect movement building.
Participating organizations co-created a strategy to build capacity among national leaders to understand the implication of climate change on their work.
Image: Anthony Rogers-Wright, Black Alliance for Peace and Jaunita Lewis, Community Voices Heard
KEY FINDINGS
- Civil society organizations need to consider the types of structural democracy changes (ex, voting systems, redistricting changes, representational district design) required to respond to migratory patterns and reshaping of political communities that are less determined by static geographic considerations and more by political self-interest of communities and people.
- Political and organizing strategies and tactics must be durable enough to address changing demographics, topography, and societal relationships.
- Once a shared understanding about climate impact is achieved, the task is to establish and engage actions that are responsive to local needs and that are designed to achieve a future where the investments of time, talent, and treasure of communities and their political organizations are not washed away.
- Many of the long-term organizing and political strategies of our civic engagement, movement-building, community- organizing, and power-building organizations do not consider the implications of displacement, migration, and topographical and geographic changes that directly affect the ability of the strategies to be successful over time.
oRGANIZATIONAL PARTICIPANTS
Democracy Building + Climate Participants
New York Immigration Coalition
More Equitable Democracy
Organizing Democracy
Community Voices Heard
Partnership Funds
Florida Rising
Black Voters Matter Fund
Chisholm Legacy Project
Social and Economic Justice Leaders
Black Alliance for Peace
Community Change
Carbon Disclosure Project
Rebuild by Design (co- organizer)
Philanthropic Participants
Democracy Fund
JPB Foundation
Mertz Gilmore Foundation
Ford Foundation
U.S. Energy Foundation
Rockefeller Brothers Fund (co- organizer)
Facilitator
Keecha Harris and Associates
NEXT STEPS
Rebuild by Design is working with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Keecha Harris and Associates, and select organizations to create a national approach to the intersection of Democracy and Climate change. If you would like to work with us on this project, please email info@rebuildbydesign.org
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