'Unite behind the Science!' Climate movements' use of scientific evidence in narratives on socio-ecological futures.

This article examines how new climate protest movements (NCMs)—specifically Fridays for Future (FFF), Extinction Rebellion (XR), and the US Sunrise Movement (SM)—engage with scientific evidence in their narratives and at the science–policy interface during their initial mobilization phase in 2019. It finds that FFF and XR predominantly rely on a unified, consensual view of climate science, particularly the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, to legitimize their claims and frame political inaction as a crisis, positioning themselves as amplifiers of scientific knowledge rather than proposers of specific solutions. In contrast, the Sunrise Movement integrates scientific evidence with political and social justice demands, actively advocating for the Green New Deal as a comprehensive policy response. Overall, the movements largely adopt a pro-science stance with little ambivalence toward scientific authority, using science as a key resource for mobilization and legitimacy while differing in how they relate science to political action.