Great Big Green Week – Together for Good: Why Climate Justice is the Missing Key to Community Cohesion 

As we come to the end of Great Big Green Week, the climate crisis remains just as urgent as ever. Environmental degradation and extreme weather events continue to intensify, disproportionately impacting minority and marginalised communities. These challenges act as a risk multiplier, deepening existing socio-economic inequalities and placing growing strain on communities. In this context, the climate crisis is not only an environmental issue, but one that directly affects social cohesion and collective wellbeing. This makes a shared, collective, and interfaith approach to climate action essential for building neighbourhoods that are stable, peaceful, and resilient. 

Climate change and environmental decline act as direct threats to domestic social cohesion by worsening local inequalities and resource strain. According to the UK Health Security Agency’s 2024 rapid mapping review, the impacts of climate change are not evenly distributed, with the worst effects falling on disadvantaged and vulnerable communities, particularly those already experiencing deprivation and poor living conditions. When ecological pressures or extreme weather hit these under-resourced neighbourhoods, they intensify local financial insecurity and deepen existing inequalities. For instance, Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) households frequently experience higher rates of socio-economic deprivation and are disproportionately concentrated in urban areas with high levels of air pollution, overcrowded and poorly ventilated housing, and limited access to quality green space, making them acutely vulnerable to climate-induced pressures. Getting climate justice back on the national agenda is a necessity to prevent deep environmental inequalities from physically breaking down local social stability. 

Building on the imperative for climate justice, delivering fair and lasting solutions also requires a shift at the structural level. As highlighted by the UK Parliament’s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) briefing on Climate Security, worsening environmental impacts create severe human mobility and social cohesion risks as local livelihoods are threatened. The POST briefing explicitly notes that failing to properly plan adaptation policies can inadvertently amplify these existing domestic inequalities. Without robust national security legislation that deliberately prioritises and funds adaptation for vulnerable frontline neighbourhoods, the escalating cost of food and climate-induced inflation will naturally hit marginalised communities first.  

The faith-based and voluntary sectors are uniquely positioned to foster grassroots solidarity, transforming climate action into a vehicle for building stable communities. These organisations possess deep-rooted local trust, allowing them to bring diverse and sometimes fractured demographic groups together around shared survival needs such as climate adaptation. Our 2024 Climate Action report highlights the scale of this potential, showing that 90 per cent of British Muslim-led charities are concerned about the impacts of climate change, while 77 per cent are already engaging in environmental initiatives. This includes practical, community-led work that brings people together while addressing both environmental and social challenges. Across the UK, all different faith communities are building on this momentum through initiatives such as community food growing, recycling programmes and environmental education projects, all of which help to unite people across cultural and social divides. When the faith sector champions natural resilience initiatives, it can act as a powerful catalyst for safeguarding community wellbeing and fostering long-term social cohesion. 

To add to this catalyst there must also be statutory protection, meaning the UK requires a comprehensive legislative framework that safeguards communities while rebuilding social solidarity from the ground up. Statutory approaches that link biodiversity loss and climate adaptation to national security can provide a practical and protective foundation for all neighbourhoods. The proposed Nature and National Security Act reflects this ambition, building on the wider Climate and Nature Bill campaign championed by Zero Hour. Backed by over 1,000 organisations including scientists, faith groups, local authorities and businesses, it demonstrates significant cross sector momentum. However, legislation alone is not sufficient. Effective climate governance must be developed in genuine partnership with the communities it is intended to protect. In line with the principles of the Civil Society Covenant (an agreement that promotes partnership working between government and civil society), the Government should work collaboratively with grassroots organisations, faith groups, and local stakeholders to create policies and delivery mechanisms. This approach ensures that national frameworks are grounded in lived experience and supported by trusted local networks. 

Great Big Green Week serves as an important reminder that real, lasting change happens when we actively come together for good to protect our shared homes. MCF urges the Government, faith leaders, and civil society networks to formally recognise climate resilience as a core pillar of community cohesion policy. We call for targeted statutory funding to climate-proof the UK’s most deprived and diverse urban areas, ensuring that those bearing the brunt of environmental inequality are not left behind. Ultimately, local grassroots action must be locked into national law to genuinely secure these vulnerable neighbourhoods. To bridge this gap between community efforts and statutory protection, we call on the UK Government and all sectors of society to support the proposed Nature and National Security Act.