Through subtly exploiting public ire over potholes, a group of climate activists has successfully gathered support for the net zero objective.

The director of the environmental organisation Round Our Way, Roger Harding, urged other organisations to emulate the campaign's success, which emphasised how climate change exacerbates issues with Britain's roads.

Speaking on Wednesday at the Leaders Forum of the Association of Charitable Foundations in central London, Mr. Harding highlighted the accomplishments of his own organisation in redefining civil problems to raise awareness of climate change.

According to Mr. Harding, "For example, we did some stuff on climate change making potholes more likely, probably the biggest story we've done and we still get tonnes of coverage," in Third Sector, a trade newspaper for nonprofit and voluntary groups.“Loads of people wanted to talk about that and we could highlight that and talk about flooding and other things.

“So climate change comes at the end of the sentence rather than the beginning. I think that’s our best shot at making it engaging.”

Round Our Way has described itself as “an organisation for people in the UK paying the price for climate change”. The group seeks to amplify stories about climate change, as well as lobby the Government and companies.

Mr Harding said: “What we do at Round Our Way is try to highlight the disproportionate impact climate change is having on working-class people and then we try to get more of our voices in the media and political debate.”

Mr Harding said his work at Round Our Way had also looked at the impact climate change was having on elderly people and school conditions because of temperature changes.

The forum took place at the County Hall and kicked off with a breakfast laid out by Ruffer, an investment management firm which caters for charities, institutions, pension funds and private clients.

In the morning before the panel discussion, attendees were invited to partake in peer reflection circles, sessions on “inner development goals”, and an investing for climate session put on by Cazenove Charities, part of Schroders.

In the same panel discussion, Kamran Shezad, director of the Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences, called on faith leaders to thread climate awareness into their teaching.

He said: “I find the faith angle a very interesting way to start this conversation because it supports the personal and systemic motivations to bring about change.

“Faith groups are not just about theology and scripture – that’s one part of it, but you can mobilise communities and have influence on policies.

“There’s a growing space that’s expanding and more people are getting involved, not just faith leaders but also the community leaders, uncles, aunties, credit union people, it’s a central hub.”