Putting the You in Community Resilience to Climate Change | Ned Gatenby | TEDxTeesside

Quick Overview

Ned Gatenby argues that community resilience, built from the ground up through local participation in climate action, is the essential tool for navigating the severe economic and environmental challenges posed by the climate crisis, directly countering the top-down, often ineffective strategies of national governments and industry.

Key Points: The speaker asserts that the failure to address climate change effectively stems from a lack of community resilience, which is currently disproportionately affected by negative impacts. In the UK, over two-thirds of voters say climate and environment policy influences their vote, yet 1 in 10 households suffer respiratory disease made worse by air pollution from traffic. The speaker cites research showing that over 6 million people in the UK, and 194 governments globally, have signed the Paris Agreement, yet this top-down approach often fails to connect locally. The speaker advocates for grassroots resilience, noting that local community organizations working on projects like community gardens provide practical benefits like lower energy bills and improved physical/mental well-being. Volunteering for local climate action is shown to be good for individual health, and local groups build cohesion that national policies often miss. The speaker concludes that true resilience comes from collective strength, where local actions, driven by community participation, prepare people for future shocks better than distant policy-making. The speaker, Ned Gatenby (he/they), delivered this TEDxTeesside talk in October 2025.

Context: This TEDx talk by Ned Gatenby explores the concept of community resilience in the face of the growing climate crisis. Gatenby contrasts the top-down, often abstract nature of international agreements and national policies with the tangible, localized benefits derived from community-led climate action. The speaker shares personal experiences of feeling different while growing up and how accessing the internet helped him connect with queer communities, drawing a parallel to how local networks can foster essential resilience against global challenges like extreme weather and rising energy costs.