Strategic Advocacy and Lobbying on Environmental, Climate, and Sustainability Issues

The green transition is often described as a shared necessity, but in practice it is characterized by intense conflicts of interest. At the same time, governments, industries, advocacy groups, and consultancy actors are intensifying efforts to shape regulation, public opinion, and the direction of sustainability transitions. Despite the growing societal importance of these processes, there is still limited knowledge about how influence is exercised, negotiated, and legitimised across different actors and arenas. The project therefore aims to examine how strategic advocacy and lobbying shape policy processes, sustainability initiatives, and public debate. Particular focus is placed on key political issues and geographic contexts where tensions and pressures for transition are high.

Interest organisations and claims
Interest organisations, industry actors, and advocacy groups actively compete to shape how environmental and sustainability issues are understood in public debate and policymaking. Through narratives, campaigns, and policy claims, actors seek to gain legitimacy, build political support, and influence decisions about regulation, land use, and sustainability priorities.

One sub-project focuses on these communicative struggles within two politically contested areas: the Swedish forestry sector and the food industry. Both involve competing economic, environmental, and political interests across multiple levels of governance, where established norms and power structures shape which perspectives gain influence.

Strategic Advisory, Positioning and Negotiation
The green transition—including the shaping and influencing of political decisions, policy implementation, and the development projects—often takes place at regional and local levels. These processes are typically preceded and characterised by extended periods of negotiation, strategic advisory, and positioning, including strategic commitments, collaborations, and knowledge-sharing. 

Regional dynamics, capacities, and land-use assessments play an important role in shaping these processes, as municipalities, businesses, civil society organisations, government authorities, and consultancy firms engage and seek to influence outcomes. However, these interactions are not neutral, but rather characterised by legitimacy struggles and conflict.

Northern Sweden, which is currently taking a leading role in the green transition and hosting, or being considered for, several high-profile development projects, constitutes a valuable case for understanding how different actors engage communicatively and navigate these processes.