Secure rights are the foundation of rapid transition. Without secure rights and a say over how to address climate change, decisions imposed from above may be resented or rejected.
For rapid transitions to work for all, they have to be just, and based on real, accessible and democratic decision-making. All kinds of positive rights have been agreed internationally over decades. Access to food, shelter, dignity, and freedom from persecution for all, sit alongside the rights of the child. But too often economic systems become entrenched that make securing these rights practically impossible, and climate breakdown is a further assault on all of them.
Sometimes the conflicts become stark and unmissable, such as when land, forest or fishing waters are grabbed from communities for remote, private gain, or a privatised water system prevents access to safe water. Finding ways to reclaim basic rights and see them properly realised and respected is a fundamental part of the picture of rapid transition.
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Story of change
Nature and local democracy – how a River Parliament shows what community control can doIt is often said that democracy is too slow to win urgent ecological progress. But when communities in Rajasthan, India, formed a special parliament to...
Story of change
The land is ours – movements reversing legacies of inequality and modern land grabsFood security is one of the first victims of the increasingly extreme weather patterns linked to the climate emergency. People face even greater insecurity...
Briefing
Crisis conversations – Reset #4: time, work and sharing economic benefitsA decade of economic hardship seemed to have transformed for increasingly urban workforces the promise of shorter working weeks and better work – life...
Story of change
When behaviour changes overnight – from stay-at-home, to smoke free air and switching sides of the roadHow quickly, in peacetime democracies, are people prepared radically to change their behaviour? The Covid-19 pandemic provides some clues. One of the most...
Story of change
S**t matters – how the Covid-19 crisis reveals both progress and the challenge of universal sanitationNever has a resource crisis been brought so swiftly to the attention of the global North than when toilet paper was suddenly in short supply and even...
Story of change
‘Charismatic’ crisis-leadership by communities reveals a potential for rapid transitionsOften overlooked is the degree to which communities as a whole, rather than individuals demonstrate leadership in times of change and crisis. Charismatic...
Story of change
Educating girls is more effective in the climate emergency than many green technologiesHydrogen powered superyachts and donations from billionaires often grab headlines in the fight against climate change. Whilst more simple and potentially...
Story of change
A different Wind of Change – harnessing Africa’s largest wind project for climate actionAfter commencing only in 2015, the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project (LTWP) in Kenya has rapidly become the largest such initiative in Africa, and Kenya’s...
Story of change
Transition Towns – the quiet, networked revolutionThe Transition Network began in 2006 in the small rural UK town of Totnes, Devon. It was initially a response to the twin threats of climate change and peak...
