Climate Action in a Globalizing World: Comparative Perspectives on Environmental Movements in the Global North

The existence and urgency of global climate change is a matter of scientific consensus. Yet the global politics of climate change have been anything but consensual. In this context, a wave of global climate activism has emerged in the last decade in response to the perceived failure of the political negotiations.

This book provides a unique comparative study of environmental movements in USA, Japan, Denmark and Sweden, analyzing their interaction with the international climate institutions of the United Nations, with national governments, and with currents in the global climate movement. It documents how and why the movement evolved between the Copenhagen Summit of 2009 and the Paris Summit of 2015, altering its strategies and tactics while attracting new actors to the issue area. Further, it demonstrates how the development of global environmental networks has increased contact between environmental movements in the Global North and those from the Global South, resulting in the establishment of ‘climate justice’ as a political cause and unifying frame for global climate activism.

Carl Cassegård is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Gothenburg. He is currently researching Japanese social movements with a focus on the precarity movement and the environmental movement.

Linda Soneryd is Lecturer and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Gothenburg. Her research currently focuses on environmental movements and climate change, transboundary governance and water management, and stakeholder involvement in spatial planning.

Håkan Thörn is Full Professor of Sociology, based at the University of Gothenburg. His research focuses social movements, globalization and power.

Åsa Wettergren is Associate Professor in Sociology, Department of Sociology and Work Science, University of Gothenburg. Her main research interest is in the sociology of emotions, researching a wide array of topics involving this perspective.