“Taking Action in Community Is Much, Much Preferable to Doing It Alone”: An Examination of Multi-Level Facilitators of and Barriers to Sustained Collective Climate Change Activism Among US Residents

To enact climate mitigation policies, sustained collective activism is essential to create political pressure and prioritize addressing climate change. Climate change activism includes behaviors such as contacting elected officials to urge them to take action on climate change, volunteering, and signing petitions. Climate change activism is often measured as a one-time event, not sustained activism efforts, which are necessary to enact sufficiently impactful policy changes. To examine barriers to and facilitators of sustained climate change activism, 23 in-depth interviews were conducted between August and December 2023 among members of an innovative national climate change-focused organization. Eligibility included being at least 18 years of age, English-speaking, a US resident, and highly engaged in a climate change activism group. Content analysis of interview transcripts was employed, and five themes emerged as barriers, four themes as facilitators, and five themes as both facilitators of and barriers to sustained climate change activism. The study identified strategies to promote the critical behavior of sustained climate change activism, which included fostering a community of climate change activists, clear instructions on how to engage in activism behaviors for all technical abilities, supporting mental health, and creating climate change activism as a habit and identity.