Mutual Aid Key to Climate Mitigation?

Photo by Evgeniy Beloshytskiy, Unsplash

The summer of 2026 in Europe has been a string of heatwaves, with the fourth one beginning at the end of July — the climate catastrophe is here and now. Forest fires are raging in Spain and France; there were over 10,000 excess deaths in June, with over 90% aged 65 and over. No wonder the Swiss senior women took the Swiss government to court for doing too little to protect their human rights from climate change.

The poorest communities, least responsible for climate breakdown, suffer the most. Children, the elderly and people with disabilities are also vulnerable. Five years ago in the Ahr Valley in western Germany, 12 disabled people lost their lives when evacuation warnings came too late during heavy rains and flash flooding.

Climate mitigation commensurate with the problem is nowhere to be found because we haven’t amassed enough people power and we haven’t dismantled the chokehold the fossil fuel industry has over governments. There is also ample evidence that climate catastrophes and emergencies haven’t translated into stronger climate policies being passed by governments.

So what do we do?

Studies show that overwhelmingly people help when there is a disaster or an emergency. Couldn’t neighbourhood groups based on mutual aid be created to complement and push government efforts? Groups checking on vulnerable neighbours during heatwaves, demanding the government to set up cooling centres or making sure emergency services know who needs extra help during an evacuation.

Communities who have been directly impacted by disasters have a strong interest in improving the situation in the aftermath. Couldn’t these same mutual aid groups be a vehicle to demand wider change? These groups are likely representing wide political views, but aligned on needing to be better shielded from the impacts of climate change. And they have experience working together within an established structure.

In Ahr Valley, where over 180 people lost their lives to extreme rains and flash flooding, journalist Theresa Leisgang chronicled five years after the storm in the German weekly die Zeit in July 2026 how the valley rebuilt homes and buildings ecologically, developed new adaptation measures and updated emergency plans to increase resilience. Cornelia Wiegand, a forward looking county commissioner used the catastrophe as a chance to “build back better” with the future in mind. Yet Eveline Lemke, a former economics and environment minister from the Green Party for the German state Rhineland-Palatinate rightly said, “but none of that will help if we don’t stop the climate crisis.”

Although increased resilience and adaptation don’t get us off fossil fuels, we have an obligation to decrease human suffering caused by the climate crisis. But perhaps the success of improving our ability to deal with the impacts of the climate crisis will result in neighbourhood groups becoming even bolder by demanding mitigation.

We still haven’t found a way to keep the oil, coal and gas in the ground. Nevertheless I hold out hope because I believe in the power of the collective to make change. Fortunately getting active in one’s community is always possible and it’s a very learnable skill. It can be as simple as inviting neighbours to a meeting to discuss simple ways to support one another during the latest heatwave.