Stockholm, Sweden | 18 August 2025

While climate change is increasingly seen by the public as a pressing and immediate threat, parties often struggle to turn this awareness into political momentum. “We know people care about the climate, but the way we talk about it hasn’t always connected with their daily realities,” says Dr. Ludovic Garattini, NGN lead researcher. “This project is about changing that.”

Rather than relying on a top-down approach, NGN takes a bottom-up trajectory, starting with the stories people tell in their own words and worlds. The project combines a systematic literature review with qualitative fieldwork to understand how climate and environmental issues are perceived and discussed across cultures and contexts.

In November 2024, NGN piloted its first qualitative study at the United Nations COP 29 conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, conducting over 80 semi-structured interviews with participants from around the world. In May 2025, the team piloted four focus groups and additional interviews in Ukunda, Kenya, bringing in perspectives from indigenous and frontline communities. Preliminary findings were shared at a partner presentation in January 2025, and a research article on the European Green Deal was published in June in the European Network of Political Foundations (ENoP) journal.

“The aim is to weave together insights from civic society, academics, policymakers, and even industry representatives, from renewable energy to fossil fuels,” explains Dr. Garattini. “We want to build narratives that feel relevant, relatable, and motivating, without resorting to fear or division.”  

The NGN team is building partnerships with political foundations, think tanks, youth movements, and academic institutions, including GroenLinks, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, and Cogito. Two research missions in 2024 and 2025 helped strengthen ties and promote scientific dialogue on environmental and socio-academic dimensions of climate trauma. By combining rigorous research with diverse perspectives, NGN aims to create political messages that connect climate action to immediate social, economic, and moral benefits, inspiring public trust, mobilising action, and making environmental leadership a winning story.

About New Green Narratives (NGN)

The New Green Narratives project is a research initiative by Green Forum launched in July 2024, aimed at rethinking how climate and environmental issues are communicated in political and public life. Combining a systematic literature review with qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews and focus groups across diverse communities, NGN takes a bottom-up approach, capturing climate narratives in people’s own words and contexts. By weaving together insights from civic society, indigenous and frontline communities, academics, policymakers, and industry representatives, NGN seeks to craft political messages that connect climate action to tangible social, economic, and moral benefits. The project is building international partnerships with political foundations, youth movements, think tanks, and academic institutions to ensure its findings are relevant, relatable, and actionable across cultures.

Stay updated on our website and social media for new findings, publications, and upcoming events from the New Green Narratives project.

https://www.enop.eu/publications/the-eu-amidst-global-shifts-navigating-the-path-to-democracy-in-unstable-times/

The post ‘New Green Narratives’ project seeks to transform climate communication appeared first on Green Forum Sweden.