Climate shaming: explaining environmental NGOs targeting practices

How do non-governmental organizations (NGOs) target governments for climate shaming? NGOs increasingly function as monitors of states climate performance and compliance with international climate treaties such as the Paris Agreement. Lacking formal sanctioning capacities, NGOs primarily rely on ‘naming and shaming’ to hold states accountable to their commitments in climate treaties and to ramp up their climate mitigation efforts. However, we know little about how and why NGOs engage in climate shaming. This article advances two arguments. First, we argue that NGO climate shaming is likely to be shaped by the international and national climate records of governments. Second, governments’ climate actions can create contradicting expectations by both inviting and repelling NGO climate shaming. To test our arguments, we complied an original global data set on climate shaming events carried out by environmental NGOs. Our empirical analysis suggests that while NGOs are generally more likely to shame climate laggards, climate frontrunners may also be shamed if they engage in non-binding climate commitments.Climate laws and international climate treaties are central for our understanding of how NGOs target governments for climate shaming.NGOs are generally more likely to target climate laggards than frontrunners.Climate shaming is not only about whether but also how governments participate in global climate governance.Membership in climate institutions with non-binding commitments attracts NGO climate shaming.There is a risk that governments sign international climate treaties, without the intention to comply, in order to escape climate shaming.