“Climate translators” building trust and local democratic cooperation on green transition: Denmark and Germany

Abstract

This article investigates how climate activists engage in building trust in public debates and local political conflicts over green transition. The article applies the empirically grounded concept of “climate translators” to study the challenges of intermediary trust-building by both independent climate activists and institutionally embedded activists who aim to stimulate climate policy change at the local level. In Denmark, municipalities endorse activists as climate translators to promote civic participation and deliberation. In Germany, activists have developed more conflict-oriented translation models based on direct-democratic campaigns and advocacy work outside institutions. We discuss these varied strategies of trust-building as they emerged in different contexts.