Over 2,200 people have signed up to host a screening of the new People’s Emergency Briefing film in their communities - a powerful demonstration of people’s willingness to act on the climate and related crises when a clear path forward is available.
Below, Co-chair of the Climate Psychology Alliance and ICRA member Rebecca Nestor reflects on her personal experience:
“I went to the Westminster National Emergency Briefing (NEB) in November last year, and listened carefully to the expert talks about overlapping extreme weather events, food shortages, unliveable temperatures, and social unrest that we can expect as climate change hits the UK.
It was a lot. I’ve been in the climate movement for fifteen years and I know the facts, but hearing all of it together raised my anxiety levels noticeably.
I knew I was anxious because I got somewhat over-energised and active, and badly wanted to connect with others around me. (Sound familiar to anyone? A colleague who was also there had an opposite reaction - she wanted to avoid others for several days while she processed the material. We all have different ways of dealing with this kind of impact.)
When I talked to others present I could feel their efforts to manage their emotional responses too. It felt hard to connect - we all had emotional work to do in addition to the cognitive response and in a big event like this there wasn’t really space to deal with our emotions. Mostly people with significant knowledge of climate change, we were still experiencing the weight of hearing it all at once.
Fast forward to April and there is now a film based on these talks, called the People’s Emergency Briefing (PEB). The idea is that communities screen the film and talk with their local leaders and representatives about how it would be if we treated the climate crisis as the emergency it is. How would we act to ready ourselves for what is likely to be coming, and what steps would we take to reduce the likelihood?
I am so delighted that this is happening. I think it’s a significant national moment. And I wonder, what kinds of strong emotional responses will the film evoke in those watching, many of whom will be hearing its tough messages for the first time? We know that humans’ first response to difficult news that makes us anxious is often a defensive one. We say it can’t be true, or it’s not as important as something else, or we seem to accept it and then do nothing to act on the news.
Defences are useful in protecting us from the impact of the news while we absorb it, but if we are not supported to do the absorbing part, we might stay in the defensive phase. And with the huge pressures many of us are facing around cost of living, too much work, discrimination, health challenges and everything else, it’s not surprising if the climate stays in the ‘too-frightening’ box.
It was the experience of the emotional impact of the November briefing, and our reflections on it within CPA and ICRA, that made me so grateful for the volunteering work that my colleague Linda Aspey has been doing since last year with the NEB leadership team on the Westminster briefing and PEB screenings to build climate psychology into the offerings. Linda has also produced facilitator guidance materials and is running scores of free climate psychology and facilitation skills workshops so they can help audiences to absorb the facts emotionally as well as cognitively, and is training more CPA facilitators to deliver them. CPA is now an official partner with the NEB, and ICRA is part-funding the additional facilitators.
Last night I saw the film. It wasn’t even at a proper community screening - it was a private gathering of those planning to screen it, in my home county of Oxfordshire. The big room was full, and several people had been to Linda’s workshops and were talking about the value of looking after people’s emotional needs in their screenings. I felt the anxiety (and grief, and fear) all over again, but this time with a sense of the connection to others and emotionally-attuned momentum that we need.”
Read on for information on the new workshop, our new ICRA Community Calls, the Climate Courage Schools campaign and community news...
Community Calls
If you are engaged in or interested in inner work in response to the climate crisis or would like to learn more, we warmly invite you to join our upcoming Community Calls.
These are monthly online gatherings where you can:
- meet the ICRA team and each other
- explore together what this community of practice could look like
- share how you may be integrating inner work in a diversity of ways, and its significance in responding to the climate crisis and broader polycrisis.
Find out more and book your free place
Responding to the People’s Emergency Briefing documentary
The People’s Emergency Briefing documentary will be screened across the UK by volunteer facilitators to bring the information presented at the National Emergency Briefing at Westminster last year to people in communities across the UK.
This new workshop for those hosting the screenings covers the psychological context, a practical facilitation framework, and tools for handling difficult group moments.
✍️ To register for the workshop, first sign up to host a screening with the NEB, then book your place (multiple dates in April and May).
These workshops are designed by Linda Aspey of the Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA) and delivered by trained CPA members. CPA is a partner of ICRA (the Inner Climate Response Alliance) which is part-funding these workshops.
ICRA partner the Climate Majority Project (CMP) is also supporting the National Emergency Briefing and in this video talk about how they are mobilising communities around local adaptation - preparing neighbourhoods, schools, and families to depend on one another through an increasingly unstable world. In partnership with ICRA, the CMP also addresses the emotional toll of the climate crisis.
Help bring schools to the heart of community resilience
You might have come across the Climate Courage Schools campaign from the Climate Majority Project, which has been working with educators to help shift climate education into the useful, caring and potentially transformative support it could and should be.
In its next phase this vital campaign will aim to support all teaching staff across the UK with climate, nature and emotional resilience training so that they can teach climate truth with honesty and care. Climate Courage will be working in collaboration with ICRA and other key partners. You can donate to help make this happen - the crowdfunder closes on Sunday, April 19!
We’re delighted to share here a mix of events, workshops and other offerings - some from people already in the ICRA network, others from outside that we think you might be interested in. If you have something you’d like us to share with the community in next month’s newsletter, drop us a line at hello@innerclimateresponse.org.
Good Grief Festival
This festival will explore grief, resilience and hope with thoughtful, honest conversations about living with loss. Guests include leading grief experts Julia Samuel MBE and David Kessler, former Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho OBE and resilience researcher Dr Lucy Hone. Online. Friday 17th to Sunday 19th April | Find out more.
Facing Fragility: Toward Building a Culture of Coliberation
An advanced anti-racism course for white-bodied folx, offered in seven sessions along the expanded, decolonized spiral of the Work That Reconnects. Designed to deepen emotional, somatic, cognitive, and social capacity, this course builds the tools needed to confront white supremacy and systems of oppression—while staying engaged without overwhelm, burnout, or shutdown. Online. New Cohort will start in April 2026 and run through October 2026 | Find out more.
People, Planet, Pop-Ups
The Resilience Project is hosting a free pop-up event every Saturday throughout May for young changemakers in London aged 18-28. These drop-in events have been designed for joy-loving, community-spirited young people who feel sad, tired, angry, or burned out about the state of the world. Every Saturday in May 2026, London | Find out more
Moth Festival of Ideas
The More-Than-Human Life (MOTH) Program is an interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to the advancement of rights and well-being for humans, nonhumans, and the web of life that sustains us all. London, May 14-16th 2026 | Find out more.
Spiritual Ecology Festival at St Ethelburga’s
A three-day festival interweaving storytelling, peacebuilding and ecology. With talks, live music, storytelling, workshops, panel discussions, contemplative spaces and an overnight planting pilgrimage. London, Sat 13 Jun 2026 - Sun 14 Jun 2026 | Find out more.
Free training on developing trauma informed practice
Thrive LDN has partnered with Nicola Lester Psychological Trauma Consultancy to offer free, pre-recorded trauma-informed practice training to support individuals and organisations. Online. Self-paced course, start any time | Find out more
Embracing Grief
Embracing Grief support circles, taster events, community days and more from Sarah Pletts, Tony Pletts and others in collaboration with The Psychedelic Society and Embracing Grief. London and online. Various dates | Find out more
Leading through storms Climate Circles
Monthly, in-person gatherings “where we choose to lean in and stay, rather than look away. We believe that we need a community of supportive others and regular intentional practices in order to do this.” London and online. May 13, 2026 and monthly thereafter | Find out more
Support Space for Young Adults
CPA offers free, online spaces offer deep listening, warm care and resilience building for young adults aged 18-25 living in a time of crisis. Online. Next date 13 May, 2026| Find out more
We hope this newsletter has been useful - feel free to drop us a line to let us know what you’d like to see more (or less) of. And we look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming community calls.
Warm wishes, The ICRA team
The Inner Climate Response Alliance is a partnership between the Mindfulness Initiative, the Climate Psychology Alliance and the Climate Majority Project, funded by the National Lottery Climate Action Fund. We’re not here to deliver practices ourselves, but to create space for people to work together - connecting inner work practitioners with grassroots and community climate efforts, supporting groups to experiment with practical approaches, and raising public awareness of why inner and relational resilience matter.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.