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Climate change is arguably the single most important political issue in the world today. As yet, however, there has been little research on the relationship between climate change and nationalism. In this contribution we investigate the possible existence of a 'green nationalism' among progressive and social democratic sub-state nationalist parties in minority nations. We identify an uncharted rhetorical and ideological continuity between how climate issues are perceived and championed among minority nations across time. This is a clear instance of 'frame bridging', where seemingly disparate policy elements are combined and reinforce one another. We show how sub-state political actors actively seek to use this link with climate-related environmental issues to bridge policy issues. We conclude by cautioning that it is unclear whether this sub-state 'green nationalism' might survive an ascent to statehood, in which state-building and other forms of realpolitik might trump and eclipse environmental concerns.

This thesis attempts to explain how a popular independence movement in the Spanish region of Catalonia has achieved massive popularity in later years. Based on 6 months of fieldwork in a Barcelona neighborhood among the left-wing nationalist party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), I provide my view on how the politically active Catalans in ERC work towards independence. My argument is that the inclusive nature of Catalan nationalism and the way members equate universal values with Catalan ones are social mechanics that help the formation of a populist people and create a broad independence movement. Rather than being reducible to either a purely emic or civic type of nationalism, Esquerra’s ideology of Catalanism can be termed inclusionist, as it allows the entry of foreigners into the Catalan nation with relative ease, provided they comply with the strong obligation to learn Catalan. This inclusionist tendency has ramifications for Catalanist politics, as members of Esquerra engage with their nationalist discourse by presenting certain broad values as core Catalan traits. This allows for many sectors in Catalan society to identify themselves with said values and forms the basis for a high degree of political mobilization. Due to a change in the political logic of the Catalanist political scene, primarily led by the efforts of Esquerra, the inclusionist tendencies and identification with broad values characteristic of Catalanist ideology lay the foundation for the presentation of all of Catalonia as a unified people. Independence is used as the political goal around which otherwise unrelated issues can coalesce, bringing unity to a populist movement for Catalan independence. In forming my analysis, I first establish a characterization and situation of Catalanism as a type of nationalist ideology. Through the use of Ernest Gellner, Anthony Smith, David McCrone and Michael Billig, I discuss both the importance of history for understanding ERC an