What’s in a number?
350. It's not a membership figure or a founding year. It's 350 parts per million - the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere that scientists identified as the upper limit of a safe climate. The global 350.org movement was built around that number, and 350 Aotearoa has been its Kiwi counterpart since 2009.
That number has long since been passed. That’s one of the reasons why 350’s work is even more important than ever.
What started as a small climate advocacy group has grown into one of the country's most visible and active climate organisations with seven staff, hundreds of volunteers across the year, around 8,000 people on their email list who they mobilise, equip, and connect to the broader movement. Their mission is, in their own words: to support a just transition to a community-led renewable energy future by fostering and enhancing a resilient climate movement.
Community-led. That phrase is at the heart of everything 350 Aotearoa is doing right now.
We need a national energy strategy
Aotearoa has been without a comprehensive National Energy Strategy since the previous one expired in 2021. In the meantime, the government has been moving towards a new LNG import terminal - doubling down on fossil gas at the exact moment most of the rest of the world is working to move away from it. All while thousands of households around the country are choosing between heating their homes and paying for groceries.
350 Aotearoa wants to fill that strategic vacuum with something grounded in communities. Households dealing with energy hardship, Mana Whenua whose relationships with land and resources need to be central to any real transition, towns with the potential to generate their own power and keep the benefits local, places where energy access builds resilience in the face of the next big storm.
Their documentary, We Can Produce Our Own Power, highlights this case by telling stories in language that moves people. It’s been screening at community events around the motu since 2024, sparking local energy conversations wherever it lands. Part 2 is next, and with an election on the horizon, the timing is important.
Movement Generous
One of the things that makes 350 Aotearoa unique is that they give things away.
Tools, frameworks, infrastructure. Even the most scarce commodity: time. They describe themselves as a "movement generous" organisation, openly sharing resources to enable rapid-response campaigns and help justice-centred solutions emerge across the wider movement. When an activist project needs auspicing or other organisations need training, 350 is happy to show up. Their theory of change is people power and they're building it for the whole ecosystem. That means that a grant to 350 ripples through the whole ecosystem.
The Training Ground
Perhaps the most striking evidence of 350's training culture and presence on the wider ecosystem is the people.
Alva Feldmeier, 350's co-CE, is a former volunteer. She came into the movement through 350's organising programmes, got equipped and supported, and eventually stepped into leadership at the organisation itself. She's not alone, other alumni of 350 Aotearoa have gone on to found or lead organisations including Common Grace and Climate Club, and others have moved into union and advocacy roles across the sector.
Glimmers of their impact can be seen pretty much everywhere you look in the New Zealand climate movement.
Rooted in This Land
350 Aotearoa is explicit about what it means to be a climate organisation in Aotearoa: climate justice and Indigenous justice have to be the same conversation.
Their Te Tiriti commitment is something they’ve worked hard to embed. They actively support the recommendations of Matike Mai Aotearoa (the Independent Working Group on Constitutional Transformation) and frame the energy transition itself as inseparable from the restoration of tino rangatiratanga and mana motuhake.
In their framing, a community-led energy future is one where Mana Whenua can realise kaitiakitanga, rather than the transition simply swapping one set of distant decision-makers for another.
Why The Climatics Selected 350 Aotearoa
Recent events and policy decisions are inspiring more people to get involved in climate action - to be heard and to do something that counts. 350 Aotearoa is an organisation capable of meeting that energy by equipping people, connecting them, and keeping them focused on what shifts policy.
350’s work linking energy hardship and climate justice fills a gap. It connects the kitchen table to the policy table. People’s lived realities make it clear that the energy transition is a justice issue. Environmental justice AND economic justice. Their movement-generous model means they're building and working with the whole ecosystem, rather than just being focused on their own corner of it. And their vision of a just, prosperous, and equitable world built with the power of engaged advocates is one we're proud to help resource.
350 Aotearoa is one of four organisations funded through The Climatics' July 2026 funding round. Their work aligns with two of our focus areas: "Build the Movement" and "Transform the Politics." Learn more at 350.org.nz.
