From Climate Advocacy to Public Engagement: An Exploration of the Roles of Environmental Non-Governmental Organisations

Joseph Szarka

doi:10.3390/cli1010012

Abstract

The capacity of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to encourage public engagement with climate protection is analysed through a conceptual framework focused on six advocacy functions: issue framing, knowledge generation and dissemination, attribution of responsibility, lobbying, public mobilisation and agenda setting. This framework is used to organise and interpret the results of a fieldwork study of environmental NGOs, conducted in France, Germany and the UK. Key findings include the importance of the cross-linkage of climate with other categories of issue, NGO stress on knowledge as a precursor to action, a ‘politics of accountability’ in which the attribution of responsibility paves the way for making political demands, a preference for multi-layered lobbying, where process can be as important as product, and the need to adjust NGO mobilisation and agenda setting strategies in the aftermath of the 2009 Copenhagen negotiations and the financial crisis.

Highlights

The need for climate protection was enshrined in the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol
The following comment, coming from a mass campaign organisation, highlights the links between lobbying, public mobilisation and consciousness-raising: ‘Our principle activity for involving citizens is to engage them in the action of advocacy; one advantage, I don’t know if it changes the policy maker, but it changes the citizens, they get a foot in the door of political action; it’s a lot more rewarding than sorting your rubbish for recycling’
Was Copenhagen seen as a defining event for global climate policy, but it was flagged as a milestone for the evolution of the Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) sector: ‘I think that Copenhagen was an extremely important moment (...) because it was the meeting point between the established environmental groups (WWF, Greenpeace, etc.) and the anti-globalisation movement’

Summary

Introduction

The need for climate protection was enshrined in the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. In the more recent period, NGO strategies to foster public engagement with climate protection in their domestic constituencies have developed more strongly [15,16], but scholarly attention has been limited. Its main research question is this: how does NGO climate advocacy encourage public engagement with climate protection? The article reviews how public engagement with climate issues is promoted by environmental NGOs and explores the self-reflexive learning processes in which NGOs are involved. The first section develops a conceptual framework for analysing climate advocacy, using a literature review to identify characteristic advocacy functions undertaken by NGOs. The second section uses the conceptual framework to organize and interpret the results of a fieldwork study of environmental. NGOs conducted in France, Germany and the UK It thereby investigates empirically the consequences of choosing particular forms of advocacy to engage various publics. Key outcomes and future research orientations are drawn out

Developing an Understanding of NGO Climate Advocacy

Advocacy and Issue Framing

Advocacy as Knowledge Construction and Dissemination

Advocacy as Attribution of Responsibility

Advocacy as Policy Lobbying

Advocacy and Public Mobilisation

Agenda Setting

Probing NGO Climate Advocacy in the Field

Issue Framing

Knowledge Generation and Dissemination

Attribution of Responsibility

Policy Lobbying