Reframing local empowerment for climate resilience through mutual aid

Carmen Elrick-Barr; Mark Pelling; Bruce C Glavovic; Timothy F Smith; Katrina Brown

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ae9564

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Reframing local empowerment for climate resilience through mutual aid

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Reframing local empowerment for climate resilience through mutual aid

Carmen Elrick-Barr, Mark Pelling, Bruce C Glavovic, Timothy F Smith and Katrina Brown

Environmental Research Letters, Vol.21, pp.1-6

2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ae9564

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Abstract

Climate adaptation

Empowerment

mutual aid

community resilience

locally-led adaptation

climate change

Locally-led climate adaptation is widely advocated yet can burden communities if engagement is not balanced with access to power and authority to act. In this Perspective, we argue that mutual aid provides a bridging mechanism between informal initiatives and formal governance, offering a powerful yet underexplored strategy to unlock local potential. Mutual aid describes the voluntary and collaborative exchange of resources and services for community benefit and operates across various scales and degrees of formality. In doing so, mutual aid bridges community action with formal governance processes. This offers scope to advance locally-led adaptation and consolidate co-benefits for democratic governance. In this Perspective, we outline the benefits a mutual aid lens can bring to locally-led climate adaptation scholarship and praxis, inviting deeper enquiry into modes of collaboration, the outcomes of participatory processes, and the transfer of authority. We seek to promote dialogue regarding the diverse modes of governance through which locally-led climate adaptation can be delivered. This Perspective speaks to adaptation scholars seeking new conceptual tools, practitioners designing participatory processes, and policy makers shaping governance reform. Throughout, we use ‘locally-led adaptation’ as the umbrella term encompassing community autonomy (i.e. the capacity for local self-determination) and mutual aid (i.e. the reciprocal practices through which that capacity is enacted and sustained).

Details

Title: Reframing local empowerment for climate resilience through mutual aid
Authors: Carmen Elrick-Barr (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast
Mark Pelling - University College London
Bruce C Glavovic - Massey University
Timothy F Smith - University of the Sunshine Coast
Katrina Brown - University of Exeter
Publication details: Environmental Research Letters, Vol.21, pp.1-6
Publisher: Institute of Physics Publishing Ltd.
Date published: 2026
DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ae9564
ISSN: 1748-9326
Data Availability: There is no data associated with this Perspective. The data that support the findings of this study are avail able upon reasonable request from the authors.
Grants: Building community resilience to coastal hazards in Australia, DE240100611, Australian Research Council (Australia, Canberra) - ARC
Organisation Unit: Academic Support Unit; School of Law and Society
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991250409002621
Output Type: Journal article

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