Partners for the climate? How and why EU Delegations engage with civil society organisations in climate diplomacy

2025/07/10 by Franziska Petri, Francesca Colli · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Energy · Social Sciences · #Climate Change Policy and Economics #European Union Policy and Governance #Global Energy Security and Policy

paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/07036337.2025.2532423

openalex publication_date 2025/07/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02

Abstract

European Union (EU) Delegations play an important role in implementing the EU’s climate diplomacy ambitions, representing the EU’s values and interests around the globe, and promoting ambitious climate action in bilateral relations. EU external action documents emphasise civil society organisations (CSOs) as key partners in climate diplomacy. Yet, little is known about how this plays out in practice, with no systematic investigations to date into EU Delegations’ (EUDs) interactions with CSOs in partner countries. This paper studies how and why EUDs interact with CSOs in climate diplomacy. We use a resource exchange framework to classify EUD-CSO interactions, drawing on data from semi-structured interviews with 66 EUDs. We find that EUDs interact with CSOs frequently through meetings, joint outreach activities, and material and non-material support. While EUDs’ motivations to work with CSOs vary, overall legitimacy reasons predominate over information needs.

Citations

• Democracy and Legitimacy in the European Union Revisited: Input, Output and ‘Throughput’
• Operationalising the decentring agenda: Analysing European foreign policy in a non-European and post-western world
• Assessing the European Union’s global climate change leadership: from Copenhagen to the Paris Agreement
• Democracy and the European Green Deal

Discussions

• New article out with @franziskapetri.bsky.social in @jei-publication.bsky.social. We look at how and why EU Delegations - the EU's 'embassies' - engage with civil society organisations in third countr [bsky, 6 points, 1 comments]

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