Change From Within: Building Support for Climate Policy in Groups Stereotypically Associated With Climate Opposition or Disengagement

Abstract

Despite broad support for climate policy across countries, some groups remain stereotypically associated with opposition to or disengagement from climate action. Examples include farmers and political conservatives. We interview 18 participants from six advocacy organisations trying to change their group's opposition to or disengagement from climate action and create norms of climate policy support. We introduce the term in-group advocacy to describe their efforts to build support within their groups for a social cause. Participants employed three strategies to pursue change while keeping their groups cohesive: framing change as aligned with the group's true identity, arguing change is needed in these times and facilitating group interaction to calibrate the pace of change. We find managing intense criticism from group members required organising substantial social support for spokespeople. Four of the advocacy organisations engaged in identity leadership, trying to change their group's identity to achieve their objectives.