Climate activism must constantly find new, unexpected strategies to be able to surprise and gain impact.

And that is precisely why it is difficult to predict how it will change in the coming year, say researchers in climate activism who SVT Nyheter spoke to.

But larger mobilizations can be expected, believes sociologist Mattias Wahlström from the University of Gothenburg.

He mentions Extinction Rebellion, for example.

The British branch of the movement recently announced that they are ending road blockades, in order to organize a larger protest outside the British Parliament in April.

- However, it is not a given that Extinction Rebellion in other countries will choose to follow the same strategy, he says.

Contemporary example in Lützerath

An example of a larger mobilization in the near future is the collection taking place in Lützerath, Germany.

A large crowd of international activists has gathered in the small village, which has been occupied by climate activists for a long time, to prevent the mining of lignite in the area.

One who is there is David Fopp, who is an activist himself but also researches climate activism.

He also believes in larger mobilizations in the future.



- The radical part of the movements will continue in 2023, but there are quite a few people who carry out that type of action.

Therefore, I suspect that a large mass movement will start, which will capture all those who are not prepared to go that far but who still want to get involved, he says.

Climate activism and politics

In Sweden, Fopp believes that a growing gap between the environmental movement and politics will fuel activism.

- I think that that gap will contribute to a mobilization, he says.

Jonathan Josefsson - who researches the climate movement and young people's political participation at Linköping University - also thinks along the same lines.

- There is an underlying dissatisfaction on the part of environmental and climate activists about the lack of political action that has been going on for a number of years.

The pandemic and the restrictions have prevented people from expressing their dissatisfaction publicly, and then, from a Swedish perspective, we have a change of government last fall, which has escalated the conflict line, he says.

Josefsson believes that the climate movement will use legal means to make an impact in 2023:

- A trend you can see is legal cases that are up in the world and in Europe where young people or environmental groups are suing states or companies.

These lawsuits have escalated quite sharply in number in recent years, and we can expect the attention surrounding them to continue.