We need a new cultural strategy for global climate action

Last month, British Energy Secretary Ed Miliband flew to Beijing for the first formal climate and energy talks between the United Kingdom and China since 2017. The timing couldn’t be more urgent.

With Donald Trump ramping up fossil fuel production, retreating from international climate commitments and launching trade wars with allies, American leadership on climate has all but disappeared. And if Beijing is willing to curb its emissions –  currently accounting for 29% of the global total – it could help offset the damage done by Washington’s retreat.

But China isn’t the only key player. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), while historically contributing little to climate change, is now rapidly increasing its emissions as industrialisation accelerates. We cannot expect these nations to stall their development – especially when high-income countries’ (HICs) own path to prosperity caused the very crisis we now face. Instead, we must support them in building more sustainable futures.

This moment demands more than policy tweaks or diplomatic visits. It requires a bold shift in how we engage with the rest of the world – a new cultural strategy for climate diplomacy. As LMICs become more central in climate negotiations, HICs must evolve its approach.

And that begins with acknowledging a hard truth: the traditional Western diplomatic style, embodied by Ed Miliband and his team, often clashes with the cultural norms and expectations of many of the countries we need to partner with most.

We’ve seen this play out time and again at UN climate summits. Negotiators argue late into the night over the wording of final agreements, sometimes spending hours on a single phrase and technical jargon. By the time consensus is reached, the ambition has often been watered down, and any real sense of commitment is lost.

Even when nations share the same climate goals, deep cultural differences often get in the way of meaningful collaboration. In the EU, we’ve long viewed ourselves as global climate leaders, advocates for the world’s poor and champions of a just transition. But our approach is still deeply shaped by a neoliberal, individualistic and largely secular worldview.

Consider the EU’s introduction of the world’s first international Emissions Trading System, recently backed by the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. These market-driven tools make sense within Western economic frameworks, but they’ve been widely criticised in LMICs, especially by Indigenous communities and vulnerable local populations who see them as disconnected from on-the-ground realities.

If we cannot bridge the divides between our diverse cultures, then there is simply no hope of achieving the collective, international action needed to survive the climate crisis. This is why we need a bold new approach to climate diplomacy, one that goes beyond formal negotiations and elite policymaking and connects to the cultural, spiritual and everyday realities of Indigenous peoples and local communities.

Faith, in particular, is an essential oversight of the West’s climate diplomacy. In many parts of the world, especially across LMICs, religion remains one of the most trusted and influential forces in people’s lives. Faith-based organisations such as the Green Anglican organisation or the Islamic Climate Movement are increasingly being utilised to inspire climate action that feels personal, urgent and morally grounded.

For example, Faith For Our Planet (FFOP), launched in 2022 by Sheikh Mohammad Al-Issa, Secretary-General of the Muslim World League, embodies exactly the kind of culturally-rooted, globally-minded climate leadership this moment demands. As an interfaith NGO, FFOP bridges a critical gap too often ignored by Western policymakers: the one between scientific expertise and spiritual authority.

Through global workshops that unite scientists and faith leaders, it equips religious communities with the technical tools and moral clarity to respond to climate change in ways that resonate deeply with local values, beliefs and social structures.

By amplifying its global impact through partnerships, FFOP has anchored climate action in tradition and collective responsibility. In just a few years, it has secured a seat at the table at major climate summits, including hosting events at the Faith Pavilion at the UN’s COP conferences, and is already helping build a new generation of climate leaders across the LMICs – leaders who are fluent not only in the science of climate change, but in the cultural and spiritual narratives that move people to act.

As the US retreats from its climate responsibilities, the EU must confront an uncomfortable reality: the Western political approach can no longer meet this crisis alone.

Yes, climate policy remains essential. Government-led frameworks provide the regulation, ambition and international structure needed to curb emissions. But unless those policies are rooted in the lived realities of billions of people they will never achieve the scale of transformation we need.

To rise to this moment, we must integrate top-down policy with bottom-up action. That starts by decentralising our climate diplomacy – building inclusive platforms that invite grassroots movements, faith-based organisations and community groups to help shape the global agenda. Their engagement must be more than symbolic. With proper investment in training, political literacy and climate science, plus funding through grants and fellowships, these actors can become powerful players on the world stage.

And when these diverse voices rise, they humanise our diplomatic approach. They bring new perspectives to the table, grounded not in politics alone, but in culture, spirituality and the everyday urgency of climate change.

In doing so, they help us find what diplomacy so often lacks: common ground.

And from that common ground, we can finally begin to move forward – not as isolated nations or interest blocs, but as a global community ready to meet the greatest challenge of our time.

The views expressed in this #CriticalThinking article reflect those of the author(s) and not of Friends of Europe.