Micro-level translation of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction – policy meets industry in the Swedish agricultural sector

Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is an urgent challenge for mankind. However, as aggregate emissions continue to rise, necessary changes in industrial practices are lagging behind. The article addresses this discrepancy by exploring how the issue of GHG reduction is channeled from policy to industry, in one of the more GHG intensive sectors, agriculture. We adopt the translation perspective to analyze and discuss how the climate issue travels between contexts. Our study explores the activities involved as advisors, functioning as translating agents within Swedish agri-policy, inform producers about the issue of GHG reduction. The study sheds new light on the effectiveness of mitigation policy in promoting practice change and illustrates how translation is an analytical framework suitable for studying this within different industries. •We explore mitigation policy as a process where ideas and problems are translated between policy and industry.•Translation activities of advisors are explored.•We find that problematizations, responsibilities and meaning of practice and change are translated.•These translations protect the legitimacy of practice and reduce the impetus for radical change.