Resilience volunteers are ordinary people who offer their time and labor to help solve pressing climate emergency issues. Resilience volunteers may support disaster relief efforts, build resilient structures, or even spread awareness of the climate emergency and its impacts.

Countries’ haven’t put forward enough resources to tackle the impacts of the climate emergency, so volunteering might be an important way to help fill this gap. In China, where extreme weather events cost the country $44.5 billion each year, volunteers help communities and natural areas affected by disasters respond and recover more quickly.

However, volunteering requires the time and dedication of passionate people and an understanding of the challenges at stake. It requires people to do work without being paid a fair wage. Uninformed or poorly planned resilience building can even cause maladaptation, which is when efforts have unintended or even adverse effects that increase vulnerability to climate disasters.

Where these programmes are happening, there are organizations which formally support resilience volunteering – like the China Young Volunteers Association.

Discard 1 card from your hand, then add 1 Resilience token of your choice to your player board.

• China prioritizes mitigation, adaptation in addressing climate change (The People’s Republic of China)

• When disaster strikes, you have to help: the volunteers in a global crisis (The Guardian)

• Second batch of UN Volunteers funded by China start their assignments (United Nations)

• Consider volunteering in your community on climate resilience, environmental protection, and disaster relief projects.

• Consider asking your business to donate money or goods when a disaster occurs.

• Donate to organizations which support and organize resilience volunteers in your country, or which help other countries respond to disasters.