Alternative globalities? Climatization processes and the climate movement beyond COPs

Abstract

To provide a global answer to a global problem, the climate change movement (CCM) has long organized itself around international organizations and summits. However, waning trust in a multilateral answer to climate change has motivated many in the CCM to abandon their traditional focus on UN climate summits (COPs) and to rely increasingly on decentralized actions and organizing. This fundamental transformation of the CCM has remained understudied. An important emerging question is what role global aspirations still play and how a ‘global’ CCM can be organized independent of the ‘globality’ provided by COPs. This article draws on interviews, observations and document analyses around and after the COP21 climate summit (Paris 2015) to offer an exploratory analysis of some of the main goals and efforts to construct alternative ‘globalities’. The findings depict both strengths and limitations of these strategies, which inform suggestions for future research.