‘Kicking the shin and extending a hand’: Which strategies do civil society actors use to affect transitions to sustainable finance?

• Transitions require substantial investment in new technologies and infrastructures. • Moreover, changes to the rules of the finance system itself are required. • We investigate the strategies civil society actors use to affect finance transitions. • Civil society activity has grown in sustainable finance but is low compared to other fields. • Civil society activities so far had limited impact in affecting sustainable finance legislation and practices. The role of finance has been under-researched in the literature on sustainability transitions. Much of the literature merely acknowledges the need for substantial investments in technologies or infrastructures. More recently, there has been increasing interest in the role of finance in transitions and how transitions to a more sustainable finance regime could take place. This article follows a call for research on specific actor groups within finance transitions, focusing on civil society organisations. As an exploratory study, it develops and tests an analytical framework for scrutinising strategies through which civil society is trying to affect finance transitions. Based on a mapping exercise, documentary analysis and 46 stakeholder interviews, we conclude that civil society actors mainly use cooperative approaches and have succeeded in bringing sustainable finance on the EU and German policy agendas, but have had limited impact so far in terms of reorienting legislation and finance actor long-term practices.