From climate advocacy to public engagement: An exploration of the roles of environmental non-governmental organisations

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.