The ‘efficacy dilemma’ of transnational climate activism: the case of COP21

Abstract

The transnational climate movement mobilized massively around the 2015 Paris Climate Summit (COP21) – despite a growing consensus within the movement that the UN was unable to solve the climate crisis. Extensive ethnographic fieldwork is the basis for exploration of the profound effect this consensus had on the movement around and beyond COP21. Firstly, it facilitated a historic degree of unification within a previously divided movement, around a desire to focus less on influencing official negotiations, although the degree to which negotiations should be ignored, and what actions should focus on instead, created new cleavages. Secondly, organizers experienced that mobilizing around a summit whilst trying to ignore it is problematic, thus limiting strategic options and presenting an ‘efficacy dilemma’. This, finally, limited the movement’s success, and fueled desires for a transnational climate movement beyond COPs. Whether those desires can be realized without the organizational benefits of summit mobilizations remains unanswered.