Climate change organisations

Climate change organisations have grown rapidly in number, size and influence over the past decade.

Given that people in modern societies try to respond to challenges by thinking, talking, debating, or arguing about the problem, then such profusion is expected.

To add weight to their arguments people tend to get together and form groups.

This happened even before the advent of social media that simply makes the process swift and mollifies the tyranny of distance. Forming organisations is the way we have learned to tackle issues that affect more than our immediate kin.

Talk is, after all, safer than fighting although not always as clear cut.

A group can exert pressure more effectively than an individual.

Bring together a group of experts or people with complimentary skill sets to further unpick and understand the challenge and you have an organisation.

Climate change organisations cover the full spectrum of types:

• multi-national agency, most notably the UNFCCC, that are created by and for the benefit of many nations
• technical organisations that are primarily involved with the science or engineering, such as the IPCC
• non-government organisations (NGOs) who use the freedom of not being tied to the public purse to advocate a particular position. Many of the well-known conservation NGOs such as Greenpeace and WWF are included but many climate change specific NGOs have also emerged
• lobby groups are usually created by and for commercial interests. They are often small organisations but can be highly influential as they are often well funded.
• private sector companies in their own right can be big enough or influential enough to be loud voices in the debate.
• activists make the organisations list because although often started or fronted by an individual, they sometimes gather together a group voice and in the internet age can become quite lively

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