Climate movements in Germany, India, and Australia: dynamics of transition, transformation, and emergency

Abstract

ABSTRACT Climate movements have emerged with increasing force as governments continually fail to address the mounting climate crisis. Successive movement strategies have proved integral to the possibility of effective climate policy and to wider prospects for intentional climate agency. Tracing the emergence of climate movements from the mid-2000s, this article highlights three main developments in strategy. First climate ‘transition’ centres on policy advocacy and socio-technical solutions. Second, efforts at climate ‘transformation’ signal a move to grassroots organizing for just alternatives against fossil fuel dependence. Third, climate ‘emergency’ centres on the mobilization of symbolic and disruptive outrage at present and future climate change impacts. Dynamics on the ground are explored through analysis of developments in Germany, India, and Australia, as contrasting post-industrial, post-colonial, and extractivist cases. Analysis of climate movements across the three contexts draws-out converging themes and possibilities for broad-based cross-sector mobilization.