ALT4: Organising Action

The Core Philosophy of Action: Root Causes and Power

In Climate Action and Sustainable Development, taking action moves beyond surface gestures. While personal habits such as using a reusable cup or recycling soft plastics are positive, they only address surface symptoms; effective action must target the systemic, economic, and regulatory root causes of environmental degradation.

A root cause is the fundamental structural, legal, or economic mechanism that creates or perpetuates an environmental problem. For instance, high levels of private car commuting in a regional town are not simply the result of personal preferences; they stem from structural root causes, including decades of car-centric spatial planning, underfunded public transit, and a lack of segregated active travel infrastructure.

Over the two years you move along a continuum: at the start your teacher will scaffold the process, and by the end you should be running actions your group has decided on itself. The specification describes effective action as action which:

• is collective in nature;
• aims to address root causes of climate and sustainability issues, rather than just addressing symptoms;
• considers power, and who has power, in a given context;
• is based on solidarity with people affected by climate and sustainability issues;
• is empowering and invites participation by other people and communities beyond the classroom in wider society;
• contributes to and addresses transformation of global inequalities.

Climate justice rests on the fact that climate change does not affect everyone equally. The specification names the factors to consider: age, citizenship, ethnicity, perceived social status, geography and gender. Use these when you analyse who is affected by your issue and who benefits from your action. For example, a bus-service campaign affects most those who cannot drive or cannot afford to — older people, teenagers, people on low incomes, and people in rural areas with no alternative — and that is what makes it a justice question and not only an emissions question.

Strategies for Pursuing Climate Justice (ALT4.1)

ALT4 Learning Outcome 1 asks you to identify strategies used in the pursuit of climate justice by groups and social movements to achieve change, taking into account local knowledge gathered from your community. Identifying is the outcome; but because you must also justify the strategy you choose in your own plan, learn one strength and one limitation of each strategy alongside its definition.

The specification names these strategies as examples — the list is introduced with 'strategies including', so other strategies used by indigenous activists, NGOs, civil society groups and trade unions also count. Learn these seven well, because they are the ones the specification names, but do not assume they are the only ones:

Selecting a strategy requires strategic justification. For example, creative arts expression reaches people emotionally and shifts public values, but a mural cannot alter statutory law on its own. Conversely, lobbying directly engages those with legislative power, but politicians frequently ignore policy papers unless community organising has built a visible public mandate.

Researching, Defining, and Analysing Stakeholders (ALT4.2 & ALT4.4)

Moving from general environmental concern to effective intervention requires a systematic inquiry process. ALT4.2 requires students to 'research and define a problem related to the issue', while ALT4.4 requires students to 'identify the strategies and resources needed to address the problem'.

Researching with Multiple Sources and Local Knowledge

Organisers must gather both primary evidence (interviews, travel counts, waste audits) and reliable secondary data. Reliable Irish sources for climate data include:

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) national greenhouse gas emissions inventories and projections;
• Ireland's annual Climate Action Plan;
• Climate Change Advisory Council (CCAC) annual reviews;
• Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) national energy statistics;
• Central Statistics Office (CSO) environmental and travel releases;
• Your local County or City Council Climate Action Plan.

Evaluate every source for relevance, accuracy, and bias. Furthermore, the specification requires taking into account local knowledge gathered from your community. You gather this by talking directly to local residents, farmers, bus operators, council engineers, or tidy towns committees. This uncovers site-specific obstacles, land use disputes, and historical realities that national datasets completely overlook.

Defining the Problem: Distinguishing Symptoms from Drivers

A successful project avoids broad slogans like 'halting global warming'. It isolates a specific, actionable problem by identifying what is happening, who is affected, where it takes place, and why it occurs.

Analysing Power and Stakeholders

To select viable strategies under ALT4.4, organisers examine how power is distributed across three stakeholder categories:

• Statutory decision-makers: those with legal or administrative authority to grant the required change (such as the school Board of Management, the County Council Senior Executive Engineer, or the National Transport Authority).
• Allies and organised constituencies: groups that share common interests and can mobilise numbers or resources (parent associations, local cycling campaigns, Tidy Towns committees, environmental NGOs).
• Opponents and gatekeepers: those who may resist change due to financial costs, loss of kerbside parking, or administrative inertia.

Action Planning, Resource Audits, and Deciding Democratically (ALT4.3 & ALT4.4)

ALT4.3 requires students to 'plan and design a potential action to address the problem'. An action plan is the practical operational bridge between an overarching aspirational vision and everyday execution.

• Vision: a short description of the improved future state once the root cause is resolved (for example: 'A suburban school zone where active travel is the default, safe choice for all students within 4 km').
• Specific objectives: clear, measurable milestones that work towards that vision within a definite timeframe (for example: 'Conduct a student travel audit across all years by Week 3; deliver an evidence-based submission to local municipal councillors by Week 7').
• Designing for the audience: communication materials must match the intended target. A deputation to municipal councillors requires quantitative data, maps, and engineering costings, whereas an assembly presentation to first-year students requires accessible language and relatable peer benefits.

Deciding as a Group — and Writing up Your Own Part

ALT4 actions are democratically decided in small groups, so the process matters as much as the choice. Practical ways a group decides fairly include:

• everyone proposes one option before any option is discussed, so the loudest voice does not set the agenda;
• score options against agreed criteria (does it tackle a root cause? is it safe and lawful? can we resource it in the time we have? who does it involve beyond ourselves?);
• dot-vote or vote openly, then record the decision and the reason in your notes;
• rotate roles — chair, notetaker, timekeeper — so participation is shared.

Use the facilitation skills from ALT1 here: active listening, questioning, self-awareness, managing conflict, and removing barriers so quieter members can contribute. When writing up coursework, keep two strands clearly separate: 'As a group we…' (how options were debated, decisions agreed, and tasks shared) and 'My individual input was…' (the specific tasks you personally planned and executed, such as drafting a survey, analysing data, or speaking at a meeting).

Comprehensive Resource Audit (ALT4.4)

Organising requires auditing both tangible and intangible resources before launching a project:

• People and skills: public speaking, survey design, data analysis, graphic design, and meeting facilitation.
• Information and data: EPA sectoral emissions datasets, local traffic counts, community surveys, and municipal zoning plans.
• Materials and equipment: meeting rooms, printing facilities, computing software, or physical display materials.
• Time and scheduling: allocated class periods, lunch meetings, and agreed milestones.
• Permissions and gatekeeper access: principal approval, site access, and formal council meeting invitations.
• Allies and contacts: community organisations, local businesses, parent groups, and anyone who can open a door for you.

Studying a Strategy is Not the Same as Using It

You are expected to research, explain, and evaluate all of the strategies named in the specification, including civil disobedience. Your own action is different: it must be lawful, safe, and approved before it begins. Before you act, ensure:

• your teacher knows exactly what you plan to do and where;
• you have any permission you need from the principal, Board of Management, landowner, community group, business, or council;
• a health and safety check has been completed for anything off school grounds or outside school hours;
• consent is secured before photographing, recording, or interviewing anyone, participation is voluntary, and all survey data is anonymised (General Data Protection Regulation and your school's data protection policy apply throughout).

Reflective Practice and Evaluating Potential Impact (ALT4.5)

ALT4.5 requires students to 'reflect on the potential impact of the action'. The curriculum glossary defines the verb reflect as: 'consider in order to correct or improve'. Reflection is not a diary of events or an uncritical self-congratulation; it is something you do throughout the planning (reflecting in action) and again after the action is finished (reflecting on action).

The Three Levels of Impact

When evaluating a proposed or executed action, students must distinguish between three distinct levels of results:

• An output is the direct deliverable or tangible activity completed (e.g. 250 travel surveys collected, 1 deputation meeting held with councillors, 1 mural painted).
• An outcome is the specific policy, institutional, or behavioural change resulting from those outputs (e.g. the council agrees to allocate active travel funding for a pedestrian crossing; the school installs secure bike lockers).
• A wider systemic impact is the broader, long-term environmental and social consequence (e.g. verified reductions in transport-sector greenhouse gas emissions; reduced air pollution; improved public health).

Evaluating Claims and Establishing Baselines

To evaluate success, organisers establish a baseline — a record of the situation before any intervention takes place. In numeracy and data analysis, students must avoid making exaggerated claims. If a travel audit shows a 25% drop in cars arriving at a school, you cannot automatically claim an identical 25% cut in overall transport emissions. Total emissions depend on trip substitution, vehicle engine types, passenger occupancy, and whether drivers merely rerouted to other streets.

Examining Unintended Consequences and Negative Impacts

The outcome asks you to reflect on potential impacts, not just positive outcomes. Consider ways an action could backfire or create negative ripple effects:

• alienating the very decision-makers whose statutory support is needed through aggressive confrontation;
• causing trip displacement, where car traffic merely moves to neighbouring residential side streets;
• excluding community members who lack digital access when organising exclusively online;
• raising expectations within the student body that cannot be delivered without multi-year capital funding.

Build safeguards into your design early to mitigate these risks.

Connecting ALT4 to the Written Paper and the 2027 Action Project

The competencies practiced in ALT4 are examined across both assessment components of Leaving Certificate Climate Action and Sustainable Development.

The Higher Level Written Examination (60% / 300 Marks)

What is confirmed for Higher Level 2027 is the structure of the marks: Section A 60 marks, Section B 160 marks, and Section C 80 marks, out of a total of 300 marks. The SEC has published sample examination papers for this subject — work through them with your teacher to see question styles, as 2027 is the first sitting and there are no past papers yet.

What "Higher Level" Means Here

At Higher Level you are expected to:

• work with theoretical and abstract ideas — power, systems, climate justice, root causes — with real depth in some areas, not just concrete description;
• use a broad range of skills to evaluate and use information, plan and develop investigative strategies, and work out solutions to unfamiliar problems, not just familiar school-based ones;
• use appropriate evidence and data to communicate findings effectively and draw valid conclusions.

The 2027 Action Project Brief (40% / 200 Marks)

The 2027 coursework topic is 'Reducing Ireland’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions'. The brief supplies its own starting facts: the Paris Agreement long-term goal of limiting global warming to below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels; Ireland's legally binding target of a 51% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 2018 levels by 2030; the fact that Ireland is not on track to meet this target; and that rapid systemic transformation via national and local mitigation is needed. The brief includes an EPA emissions graph spanning 2005 to 2023 across six sectors: Energy Industries, Manufacturing Combustion, Industrial Processes, Residential, Transport, and Agriculture. You may focus on any sector.

The Eight Stages of the Action Project

The brief sets out eight stages, taking up to 20 hours in total:

1. Considering the brief (about 1 hour)
2. Researching the topic in the brief (about 1 hour)
3. Researching an action taken by others (1–2 hours)
4. Deciding the specific issue to address (1–2 hours)
5. Creating an action plan (3–5 hours)
6. Taking action (6–10 hours)
7. Reflecting and evaluating (2–3 hours)
8. Finalising the Action Project Journal

Your action plan and notes are not submitted to the SEC, but keep them for drafting and authentication. The project is assessed through the journal alone.

How Your Action Project is Judged: Three Descriptors of Quality

• Planning and conducting the action: engage thoroughly with concepts, consider multiple interconnected systems, and evaluate a wide range of reliable sources. Strategies for taking effective action must be appropriate, justified, chosen and employed.
• Communication: communicate throughout the process in the clearest and most appropriate forms, showing awareness of and responsiveness to audiences, using consistent and coherent language and terminology.
• Reflection: engage in considered reflection throughout the project, locating the process and experience within broader issues relating to climate action and sustainable development.

Compliance Checklist Before You Submit

• Download the official SEC cover page and make it page 1 of your document.
• Number each section and start each one on a new page. Section headings: Arial, black, 14, bold. Body text: Arial, black, 12, 1.5 line spacing.
• Black text only (no colour, no highlighting, one font). Bold, italics, numbering, and bullets are permitted.
• Portrait orientation; 20 mm margins all round; page numbers bottom-centre. Nothing in the margins.
• Maximum 1,800 words overall; maximum 10 images (a limit, not a target; no videos allowed).
• Reference twice: in-text citation and in Section D. Acknowledge any AI tool used (tool name, version, date, prompt, or shareable link).
• Convert to PDF, print it, and proof-read the printed copy — anything invisible on the printed copy cannot gain marks.
• Submit the digital file to your teacher by Friday 12 March 2027 and sign the SEC Authentication Form P.2.

Key terms

Root Cause

The fundamental structural, legal, or economic mechanism that creates or perpetuates an environmental problem, as distinguished from the visible surface symptoms it produces.

Effective Action

Action that is collective in nature, aims to address root causes, considers power, is grounded in solidarity, is empowering and participatory, and contributes to transforming global inequalities.

Climate Justice

An approach that treats climate change as an ethical, legal, and political issue rather than solely an environmental one, recognising that those least responsible for emissions often suffer the most severe consequences across age, citizenship, ethnicity, social status, geography, and gender.

Lobbying

The practice of directly engaging with and attempting to influence elected representatives, legislators, or administrative decision-makers to enact, amend, or fund specific policies or laws.

Community Organising

The process of bringing local residents together to build collective power, identify shared concerns, develop grassroots leaders, and hold decision-makers to account.

Trade Union Organising

Workers acting collectively through an organised union to negotiate wages, safety, and a just transition away from fossil-fuel-intensive production.

Legal Actions

Using domestic courts, European directives, or international law to compel governments or corporations to uphold statutory environmental duties.

Civil Disobedience

The active, non-violent, and conscientious refusal to obey specific laws, regulations, or institutional commands, undertaken publicly to expose systemic injustice.

Boycott

A coordinated collective refusal to purchase goods, utilise services, or engage commercially with an organisation to exert economic and reputational pressure for change.

Creative Arts Expression

The strategic deployment of visual art, theatre, music, film, or spoken word to elicit empathy, communicate complex data, and reshape public values around sustainability.

Just Transition

A framework ensuring that the transition to a low-carbon economy is fair and inclusive, protecting the livelihoods, rights, and communities of affected workers.

Baseline

Initial quantitative or qualitative measurements recorded before an action begins, providing the reference point needed to assess progress or impact.

Output

The direct tangible deliverable, activity, or product generated by an action, such as a completed survey, a held meeting, or a published report.

Outcome

The specific short-to-medium-term institutional, policy, or behavioural change that results directly from a project's outputs.

Wider Systemic Impact

The long-term consequence of an action on broader environmental, economic, or social systems, such as measurable reductions in sectoral greenhouse gas emissions.

Appropriate, Justified, Chosen and Employed

The four official descriptor criteria required for high achievement when selecting and executing an action strategy in the Action Project.