What Would We Do Differently If We Believed Another World Was Possible?
Climate work is grounded in reality.
The reality of rising temperatures. Of communities already experiencing loss. Of political obstruction, inadequate finance, ecological decline, and painfully slow progress.
But there is another question we ask much less often: What happens when our sense of what is possible becomes constrained too?
The stories societies tell about the future matter. Narratives of scarcity, competition, inevitability, and collapse can shape not only how we understand the world, but what we believe is worth attempting. If we cannot imagine a fundamentally different future, how do we begin building one?
This session, hosted by the Loss and Damage Collaboration, creates space during Climate Week to exercise a capacity that can feel surprisingly radical in a moment of polycrisis: imagination.
What would a world in which people and the more-than-human world genuinely thrive look and feel like? What would become possible if our systems were grounded more deeply in justice, care, solidarity, and ecological flourishing? What keeps people believing in change when progress is painfully slow? And how can belief become a source of courage and collective action rather than an escape from reality?
These questions are particularly relevant to Loss and Damage. Responding to climate harm is essential, but Loss and Damage is ultimately about more than what happens after something has been lost. It raises profound questions about what we value, what we protect, what we repair, and what kind of world we choose to build from here.
The Loss and Damage Collaboration's Mosaic of Solutions work demonstrates that there is no single answer. Many different interventions, movements, institutions, and communities already hold pieces of what a more just and resilient future could look like.
Alongside its new “I Believe…” campaign, this session invites participants to expand the boundaries of what they believe could come next.
Not because imagining another world makes it inevitable.
Because building one requires being able to see it first.
What to expect
This will be a participatory conversation rather than a conventional discussion of climate problems and solutions.
Participants will be invited to examine the stories and assumptions that shape their own sense of what is possible, hear alternative visions of the future, and collectively imagine what thriving could mean for people, communities, and the planet.
The conversation will move between reflection and action. If we genuinely believed a different future was achievable, what might we fund differently? What might we fight harder for? What collaborations would we pursue? What would we stop accepting as inevitable?
The aim is not to leave with one agreed vision of the future. It is to make the range of futures we are capable of imagining larger.
Who this is for
This session is for climate practitioners, activists, funders, policymakers, social entrepreneurs, movement leaders, community organizers, storytellers, and anyone working for change who has felt the tension between understanding the severity of the present moment and continuing to believe that something radically better remains possible.
What you will get out of it
Space to think beyond immediate crises and reconnect with the futures your work is trying to create
A chance to examine how dominant narratives shape what we consider realistic or achievable
Perspectives on imagination, belief, justice, care, and ecological flourishing as resources for climate action
Connections with people imagining different pieces of a more thriving future
A provocative question to carry back into your own work: what would I do differently if I genuinely believed another world was possible?
Hosted by
Loss and Damage Collaboration
Climate Leadership Initaitive