Climate Activism and Social Movements

Climate activism encompasses a spectrum of collective efforts aimed at compelling societal and institutional transformation to address the climate crisis. Originating in grassroots campaigns of the late twentieth century, contemporary movements have diversified to include youth-led protests, non-governmental coalition building, and decarbonisation advocacy. These campaigns employ tactics ranging from street demonstrations and digital mobilisation to strategic litigation and shareholder engagement. Actors within the movement mobilise a variety of resources and narratives—scientific evidence, appeals to social justice and economic resilience—to frame climate change as a systemic challenge demanding urgent policy intervention. Youth-driven initiatives, notably global school strikes, have elevated the visibility of intergenerational equity, while alliances among environmental and social justice organisations underscore the intersectional dimensions of climate action. At the same time, movements navigate evolving political opportunity structures, adapting strategies in response to regulatory shifts, public sentiment and institutional receptivity. The field exhibits both institutionalisation, through formal NGOs and alliances, and renewal, in the form of insurgent tactics that confront existing power structures. This pluralism of approaches highlights the movement’s capacity to generate both policy pressure and cultural change at local, national and international levels.

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Climate Activism and Social Movements publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in climate activism and social movements across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Social movement: A collective, organised effort by individuals or groups to promote or resist change in society.

Political opportunity structure: The wider political environment that affects the capacity of movements to mobilise, including state openness, elite alignments and public opinion.

Cultural framing: The process of constructing shared narratives and meanings to define issues, identify actors and propose solutions within a movement.

Prefigurative politics: Practices through which activists embody the values and social relations they seek to establish in the future society.

References

1. Fridays for Future's Disruptive Potential: An Inconvenient Youth Between Moderate and Radical Ideas. Frontiers in Communication (2020).
2. Environmental Movements in Advanced Industrial Democracies: Heterogeneity, Transformation, and Institutionalization. Annual Review of Environment and Resources (2015).
3. Narrating political opportunities: explaining strategic adaptation in the climate movement. Theory and Society (2019).
4. Rich kids of Europe? Social basis and strategic choices in the climate activism of Fridays for Future. Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica (2021).