SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Policy and Governance
This article is part of the Research TopicLessons about Applying Expert Knowledge to Climate Change GovernanceView all 4 articles
ENGOs and Climate Change: A Systematic Review of Their Evolving Roles and Influencing Factors
Provisionally accepted
- 1Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
- 2Universiti Sains Malaysia, Minden Heights, Malaysia
- 3School of Humanities, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
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Amid accelerating global climate action, there is a pressing need for systematic evidence on the roles and determinants of Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs) in climate governance. This study synthesizes how ENGO roles have evolved and which factors shape these changes. Using the PRISMA framework, this study systematically reviews 36 publications from 2015 to 2025 and complements the review with a bibliometric analysis to map key roles and influencing factors. The literature indicates that ENGO participation is jointly driven by the institutional and policy environment, resource support, technical capacity, social networks and alliances, and public legitimacy. ENGO functions are shifting from service delivery and advocacy toward coordination across policy arenas, with growing reliance on digital tools and transnational partnerships to enhance governance effectiveness.Research remains disproportionately Euro-American, with persistent North– South disparities and unresolved questions about the appropriate scales of governance for ENGO intervention. We argue that future work should prioritize comparative, multi-level analyses beyond the global north and strengthen cross-regional collaboration. Future research should undertake multi-level comparative analyses and cross-regional collaborations along three dimensions: governance level (local, national, transnational), policy domain (mitigation, adaptation, climate finance, justice), and actor type (grassroots ENGOs, international ENGOs, public–private alliances).Substantively, improving inclusivity and capacity in the global south and fostering north–south cooperation will be pivotal for realizing the full contribution of ENGOs to effective and equitable climate governance.
Keywords: bibliometric analysis, ENGO, global climate governance, Global Warming, Governance roles, Influencing factors, NGO
Received: 16 Jul 2025; Accepted: 01 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jiao, Huang, Duan, Du and Tan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Zhicang Huang
Mou Leong Tan
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