Cooperatives and climate action

Extreme weather phenomena, natural disasters and even the spreading of some diseases, such as malaria, are linked to climate change. Global warming and carbon emissions rising into the atmosphere are putting the planet at risk and urgent steps must be taken.

The international co-operative movement wants to make people aware of the need to fight against climate change. To do this, the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) devoted its International Cooperative Day, held on the 4th of July, to action for the climate. Cooperative companies are leaders in defending the environment. Cooperativism was a pioneer in this field when in the 1980s some cooperatives took initiatives to tackle environmental degradation through the development of ecological products and the promotion of responsible consumption.

In 1992, the commitment was materialised in the ‘Declaration on the Environment and Development’, centred on developing a business economy that protected natural resources. Three years later, in 1995, the assembly of the International Cooperative Alliance incorporated a new principle to ‘Cooperative Identity’ (the reference to a cooperative’s values), including the concern by the cooperatives for the community and the environment in which they develop their activities.

Since then, concern for the environment forms part of the cooperative DNA and the cooperative movement is a global agent for change that works to move forward on the agenda for improving the climate.

The International Cooperative Day is held every year on the first Saturday in July to show the contribution made by the cooperative movement in the search for solutions to the main problems tackled by the United Nations.

In 1995, the General Assembly of the United Nations established this event and since then, alongside the ICA, the International Labour Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Farmers Organization (WFO), they select the topic the event is devoted to every year.  

Interactive map 

For International Cooperative Day, the ICA has designed an interactive map on which cooperatives from all over the world show the actions that they are developing to fight climate change.