Global Policy Entrepreneurs as Agenda‐Keepers: The UN Secretary‐General's Climate Action During the COVID ‐19 Crisis

ABSTRACT Crises tend to redirect political attention toward urgent relief efforts, often sidelining long‐term policy priorities. This article examines the role of agenda‐keepers—policy entrepreneurs who work to preserve attention to existing issues when crises threaten to displace them. Bridging the literature on policy entrepreneurship and crisis governance, it identifies a repertoire of five strategies operating across different dimensions of agenda‐keeping: problem reframing (cognitive), solution repurposing (programmatic), resource preservation and reallocation (material), support reactivation and diversification (relational), and multi‐scale and multi‐temporal planning (spatiotemporal). Empirically, the article analyzes how UN Secretary‐General António Guterres sought to maintain climate change on the global agenda during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Drawing on qualitative analysis of speeches, reports, and interviews with UN officials, it shows how the Secretary‐General integrated climate objectives into the recovery narrative and sustained visibility for climate action despite the dominance of health and economic concerns. Although the “Recover Better Together” program ultimately failed to influence most national recovery plans, the case illustrates how global actors can act as agenda‐keepers aiming to preserve issue visibility, policy continuity, and political support under conditions of overlapping crises.