New kids on the block: taking stock of the recent cycle of climate activism

Abstract

Since late 2018, a global wave of mobilization under the banners of Fridays For Future (FFF) and Extinction Rebellion (XR) has injected new energy into global climate politics. FFF and XR took the world by storm, but have now been forced into (partial) latency as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. We believe this moment presents an opportunity for reflection. In particular, FFF and XR have been depicted as 'new' forms of climate activism. However, we argue that the extent to which these campaigns represent 'new' forms of climate activism is really a matter for closer investigation. In this Profile, we therefore reflect on the distinctiveness of the 'new climate activism' as compared to previous climate campaigns. Reviewing previous studies and our own research, we find that there are both elements of change and continuity in who participates and how, and that the main change appears to be the use of a more politically 'neutral' framing of climate change that is directed more strongly at state than non-state actors.

New Climate Activism between Politics and Law: Analyzing the Strategy of the KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz

“…On the other, the reference to a present threat opens up the possibility of linking the consequences of climate change with human rights, thus reflecting the recent human rights shift in climate processes (Peel & Osofsky, 2018). The emphasis on urgency, based on a shift from the future to the present, is also characteristic of other parts of the climate movement (de Moor et al, 2020).…”

“…In recent years, however, in the wake of the Paris Agreement and its new approach to climate governance, which emphasizes the role of national governments in a mechanism of voluntary but binding goalsetting and reporting, we are witnessing both a new wave of political mobilization and a renewed invocation of government responsibility (de Moor, Vydt, Uba, & Wahlström, 2020). The most prominent example is certainly the Fridays for Future movement, which started with local school strikes by young people and soon developed into a broad transnational climate movement far beyond the younger generation (Martiskainen et al, 2020).…”

Politicisation beyond post-politics: new social activism and the reconfiguration of political discourse

“…Varvarousis and colleagues (in this special issue) draw attention to how in the South of Europe, in particular, this led to a shift in activist strategies towards practically testing and spatialising new social and political lifeforms that also cater for the basic needs of individuals (also see Swyngedouw, 2018;Zamponi & Bosi, 2018). Secondly, the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009 shattered the belief of many climate activists and engaged citizens in the feasibility of any coordinated international climate politics (Blühdorn, 2011); and the suspicion that established forms of environmental governance may for ever be compromised by the interests of the fossil economy translated into demands for more practical and situated approaches to solving sustainability problems (De Moor et al, 2020;Schlosberg & Craven, 2019).…”

Liberation and limitation: Emancipatory politics, socio-ecological transformation and the grammar of the autocratic-authoritarian turn

“…To some extent, radical eco-movements which demand System Change not Climate Change seem to contradict this analysis. Yet, given the socio-economic background of the majority of activists supporting, for example, Fridays for Future (de Moor et al, 2020a(de Moor et al, , 2020bWahlström et al, 2019), it remains uncertain to what extent they really do. In any case, with their post-political confidence in science and their post-democratic demand that the state ought to rigorously implement the supposedly categorical imperatives of climate and sustainability science, these movements, too, pour water onto the mills of the autocratic-authoritarian turn.…”