Portrait of Hannah and Fatima – Madeleine Knowles, 16.5.25.
Green New Deal Rising are bringing innovative tactics, electoral strategies and organising young people to break through and win the change we need in climate campaigning.
The Campaign
The moral leadership we need to tackle runaway climate change has often been absent from politics. In Westminster, we need new voices who can advocate for transformative policies which fight the climate catastrophe in a way that makes life better for people.
At the same time, the climate movement has faced the challenges of a post-pandemic context whereby young people in particular are struggling with the cost of living, housing instability, a volatile and insecure jobs market and anxiety for the future.
Green New Deal Rising was formed to build a youth climate movement and win the political leadership we need to fight climate catastrophe, train a new wave of leaders and change the narrative of the 2024 election. Last year, led by co-leaders Fatima Ibrahim and Hannah Martin, the group built political power through their innovative electoral campaign for a Green New Deal.
Training Session, Green New Deal Rising, 2021.
The Change
Throughout Green New Deal Rising’s campaign, Fatima Ibrahim and Hannah Martin used multiple tactics to achieve change. These include:
- Media: both have been regular spokespeople for the movement, appearing on major broadcast shows to challenge the public narrative on climate and investment.
- Campaigns targeting political leaders: their ‘Labour Be Bold’ campaign, ‘Youth Deserve Better’ and ‘Tax Extreme Wealth’ campaigns cut through with creative actions and media interventions and made headlines for the Green New Deal and the youth climate movement.
- Leadership programmes: they trained hundreds of young people from diverse backgrounds through leadership and training programmes designed to be accessible to groups who have traditionally faced barriers when engaging with climate organising groups.
- Electoral Strategy: Through volunteer-led mass canvassing programmes, they helped to elect 12 Green New Deal Champions to Parliament. During the short campaign the movement knocked on 10,000 doors, gave out 14,000 leaflets and posters, spent thousands of minutes calling people on the phone, pulled off 12 high-profile challenges including disrupting the Labour manifesto launch and challenged the now Prime Minister and Chancellor on the campaign trail as well as reaching over 1 million people online and through media.
The Future
Fatima Ibrahim and Hannah Martin’s mission is to win a Green New Deal – comprehensive government action to tackle climate change at the speed and scale required, in a way that is socially just and transforms our economy to serve the needs of people, not profit.
Over the course of the current parliament, they believe they can win significant progress towards a Green New Deal from this government – including both specific policy wins and a broader shift in approach. To win they need to build a powerful movement of young people capable of shifting the balance of power and political conditions under which this government is operating. Green New Deal Rising is going to keep pursuing strategies to shape public opinion, change the political weather, and create electoral risk and reward. We can disrupt the government’s ability to continue with business-as-usual, building the leverage needed to force a shift in approach.
