Climate Change Denial and Interest Groups

Global warming is one the most challenging issues contemporary humankind faces. We need to reduce in half our greenhouse emissions by 2030 and to zero by 2050 to meet the 2ºC of warming settled in the Paris Agreement. To surpass it would imply greater and unhandled impacts. There is scientific consensus about that, and this is urgent. So, why we aren’t properly reacting to this problem?

When facing complex issues, humans can assume them and act in consequence, or rather deny them. In this sense, there are different denial states such as the denial of the fact itself or the denial of the duty to act. Climate change is enmeshed with our way of life, values, and socioeconomic system. To talk about global warming threatens our lifestyle and calls into question our actions. Hence, one defensive mechanism is to deny it.

Global warming is also a threat to the economic interests of many polluting sectors. It compromises the neoliberal logic and the notion of progress based on constant growth. And it questions the industrial/breadwinner masculinity that promotes such idea of progress. In this scenario, in the last decades a countermovement that reject climate mitigation has disseminated denial ideas among the public opinion. They use strategic communication and public relations to promote misleading debates about climate change. Their aim is to prevent the adoption of climate policies.

This presentation is made by Jose A. Moreno, member of the research project THINKClima at Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona. This project explores climate change denial and interest groups. Specifically, it puts the focus on the discourse and strategies of climate change contrarian European think tanks.