About
The Challenge
The decade that counts
Record-breaking floods, severe bushfires, and dangerous heatwaves are becoming more frequent – driven by pollution from fossil fuels. These climate impacts are already hurting our communities and livelihoods, damaging ecosystems, and putting our children’s future at risk. As the world’s second-largest fossil fuel exporter, Australia is responsible for emissions created far beyond those generated at home.
We’re in a race against time to cut pollution and keep global temperatures in check, but the fossil fuel industry continues to fight to delay the inevitable transition to clean energy. Australia’s policy and investment settings still enable new coal and gas projects despite the environmental harm they cause. Changing this system requires the power of organised people to stand up to the power of vested interests to build a renewable powered future that our children can be proud of.
The Opportunity
Building the power we need
The climate crisis demands urgent action at unprecedented scale. But political, corporate, industrial, financial, and regulatory systems aren’t moving fast enough to scale the renewable energy solutions that are necessary and ready to go. Shifting these systems requires collective power: people, communities, and institutions working together across sectors and borders.
Sunrise exists to build that power. We identify where to have the greatest impact and connect people and organisations to act together to make it happen. We adapt to what the moment demands, sometimes leading and sometimes supporting, always focussed on aligning action across the places where decisions are made, so change delivers lasting outcomes for people, communities, and the environment.
Vision & Mission
Our vision, mission, and values guide how we work: shaping a transition that is just, accountable, and built to last.
Our Vision
At the Sunrise Project we share a vision of a world powered by abundant, clean energy from the sun, wind and water, and where healthy democracies are guided by principles of social justice and an ethic of stewardship for the earth.
Our Mission
Driven by the imperative of climate justice, The Sunrise Project’s mission is to scale social movements to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Our Values
C’mon it’s 2026
We relentlessly ask: What is actually required to solve the climate crisis? We push ourselves to imagine and deliver the scale and pace of action required. We move fast and are willing to risk failing in pursuit of systemic change.
It’s not about us
It’s about impact. And we know what can be achieved when you don’t need to take credit for it. We prioritise enabling others to do their best work to create collective power and impact.
Prioritise relationships
The quality of our relationships determines the effectiveness of our actions. We actively nurture honest, healthy relationships of mutual respect in our team and with our movement and funding partners.
We don’t live single issue lives
Audre Lorde said: “There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” We work to transform the same systems that create inequality and also drive the climate crisis.
Dare to lead
Powerful organisations and movements are leaderful. We back ourselves and each other to lead in diverse, generous and collaborative ways.
Our Story
The roots of Sunrise’s systems approach
Sunrise began in Australia’s fossil fuel expansion boom, working to connect and strengthen community efforts against coal and gas projects. Over time, that work revealed a bigger systems challenge: to protect the environment at scale, Sunrise also needed to shift finance, strengthen accountability, support communities through transition, and help build the clean energy future.
Explore The Sunrise Project
Our Story
Sunrise began in 2012, at the height of a major coal and gas expansion in Australia. Even while the public was demanding stronger climate action, the coal and gas export industry was expanding at breakneck speed. Sunrise set out to change that.
Who We Are
We're strategists, researchers, organisers, and advocates who know what it takes to shift how decisions get made. We believe in making the impossible possible, and have a track record of doing just that.
Governance
The Sunrise Project Australia is an independent non-profit company limited by guarantee with a charitable purpose to protect the environment and prevent dangerous climate change.