ACTION PLAYBOOK:
Climate Ambition in Congress
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Urge your member of Congress to be more ambitious in their support for climate policies—no matter where they're starting from.
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Customize and send an email to your state legislators
Multiply your impact by asking a friend to do this too
Report back
How long does it take? In 15 minutes, you can customize emails to all of your state legislators urging them to act. -
For every elected official, public attitudes influence the prioritization of policy issues. It’s up to climate advocates to ensure that the climate perspective is represented and prioritized as often as possible. Even the most “anti-climate” policymakers are sensitive to constituent attitudes and can take baby steps toward climate action. Meanwhile, “climate champions” can always do more if they think there’s public support.
1. Send personalized emails to your members of Congress
It might be tempting to sign your name to the bottom of a completely prewritten email, but personalized emails are much more attention-grabbing. They also get processed individually, whereas mass-produced letters are batched. Our Slack #wins-shoutouts channel is packed with celebratory posts from changemakers who sent personalized emails to elected officials and received awesome personal responses. It’s always worth it!
Use the tool below to personalize and send an email to your members of Congress. In the template, make sure to customize the sections in brackets.
This letter is customized to your members of Congress depending on their political ideology. If you see both of your senators’ names in the Senate letter editor, it means they are both climate champions or both obstructionists and will receive the same letter. If you only see one senator’s name, your senators are divided by political party, and you will be prompted to email the other one separately on the next screen.
Email your House reps here ⤵
Email your senators here ⤵
2. Instantly 2x, 5x, 10x your impact
Network effects are powerful. We're not the only ones asking, “What more can I do?” So many folks in your immediate network likely wonder what more they can do as an individual to make a difference. Answering that question for others is an important climate action. Connecting others with opportunities to take productive climate action is a crucial step toward changing cultural norms, normalizing civic engagement on climate, and making real progress.
Spread the word about this issue and Action Playbook! That could be…
a post on Reddit or the social media network of your choice
sharing links in a Slack community
a group text
an email listserv
get creative!
You can frame it however you think might be the most effective, but here's a start:
I just urged my members of Congress to do more about climate change using this Climate Changemakers Action Playbook, and it was pretty satisfying to channel my climate frustration into meaningful action directed straight at the key decision-makers. Let me know what you think! And if you get something out of the playbook, definitely pass it on to someone else who’d be interested. I’m starting to realize just how many people in our network want to do more about climate change but don’t know where to start!
3. Get a response? Share back.
If you receive a response from your member of Congress, please share it with advocacy@climatechangemakers.org. You can simply forward emails or send a screenshot. This enables the Climate Changemakers team to take note of the collective impact of the Climate Changemakers community.
👎 Did your congressmember give a reason it can’t happen? Anything you learn from their response is valuable—including their real or perceived barriers to action—so please report back. We’re trying to grease the wheels for deploying climate solutions, so the more we know, the more effective we can become as connectors and advocates.
👍 Did you get an enthusiastic response? Awesome! In addition to forwarding it along, consider sharing it publicly in the Climate Changemakers Slack #wins-shoutouts channel—others in our community may find it motivating and inspiring. We’re normalizing civic action on climate, and it starts with talking about it.