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Does climate advocacy matter? The importance of competing interest groups for national climate policies

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  • Heike Böhler
  • Marcel Hanegraaff
  • Kai Schulze

Abstract

Climate politics and governance across the globe involve an increasing number of interest groups such as from business and civil society. Against this backdrop, it matters a great deal whether interest group mobilization is able to influence climate policy-making. First, there is an increasing number of climate policy supporters like nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and green businesses lobbying in favour of additional climate policies. Second, there is also strong mobilization of groups from energy-intensive and fossil fuel industries lobbying against potentially costly climate policies. In this paper, we investigate the potential effects of these mobilization patterns. More precisely, we ask whether there is any systematic effect of competing interest group mobilization on national climate policy production. To this end, we harness arguments from literatures on interest group mobilization and climate policy-making. Empirically, we exploit a comprehensive global dataset on the adoption of national climate laws and interest group mobilization (over 4,000 organizations) between 1997 and 2016. The results show that the increasing mobilization of climate policy supporters is positively related to national climate policy production. Climate policy opponents are able to weaken this effect, but are hardly able to block new climate laws. The results add to our understanding of climate politics focusing on the role of business organizations and NGOs. This is highly policy relevant for both analysts and practitioners given that the Paris Agreement relies heavily on national policy efforts.Key policy insightsThe growing mobilization of climate policy supporters is positively related to the adoption of additional climate laws.The positive effect of climate policy supporters is weakened but rarely blocked by climate policy opponents, such as those from the fossil fuel industry.The effect of lobbying over climate policy needs to be assessed in its competitive context, that is by considering how political support and opposition on climate policy interact.

Suggested Citation

  • Heike Böhler & Marcel Hanegraaff & Kai Schulze, 2022. "Does climate advocacy matter? The importance of competing interest groups for national climate policies," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(8), pages 961-975, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:tcpoxx:v:22:y:2022:i:8:p:961-975
    DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2022.2036089
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    Cited by:

    1. BEN YOUSSEF, Adel, 2024. "The role of NGOs in climate policies: The case of Tunisia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 388-401.
    2. Samuel Trachtman & Jonas Meckling, 2022. "The climate advocacy gap," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 172(3), pages 1-7, June.
    3. Nils Droste & Benjamin Chatterton & Jakob Skovgaard, 2024. "A political economy theory of fossil fuel subsidy reforms in OECD countries," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Marco De Nigris & Francesca Giuliano, 2023. "The Role of Organised Civil Society in the Implementation of the Renewable Energy Transition and Renewable Energy Communities: A Qualitative Assessment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-27, May.

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