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Monday, October 24th, 2022

Right-Wing Populist Parties Are Bad for Climate Action, Study Finds

Author:     Olivia Rosane
Source:     EcoWatch
Publication Date:     Apr 19, 2022 | 16:03PM EDT
 Link: Right-Wing Populist Parties Are Bad for Climate Action, Study Finds
Stephan:   Watching the BBC I listened to their report on how Sweden now ruled by a far-right populist party, has just scrapped its environmental agency working to prepare the country for climate change. In one stroke Sweden has gone from an environmental leader to a near climate denier, and this same process is going on all over the world, wherever right-wing politicians have come to power. And it is primed to happen here as well if Republicans become the majority in Congress. They will try to sabotage what Biden and the Democrats are trying to do, and cause America to revert to Trumpist climate change denial. How any ordinary American can vote Republican given the damage it will do to their wellbeing is gobsmacking, and yet millions will.
Trump supporters protest the Paris climate agreement. Aaron P. Bernstein / Getty

From Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil to Donald Trump in the U.S., the past five years have offered prominent examples of right-wing leaders who set back collective action against the climate crisis. 

Now, a study published in Global Environmental Politics this month shows that the issue is much larger than a few high-profile leaders. The researchers, from the Universities of Sussex and Warwick in the UK, found that the influence of a right-wing populist party can reduce a country’s climate policy score by nearly 25 percent. 

“Conventional centre-right political parties have always been more reluctant to adopt strong climate policies, but the rise of right-wing populist parties and movements represents a threat of a different order,” study co-author Dr. Matthew Lockwood, senior lecturer in Energy Policy in the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex Business School and co-director of the Sussex Energy Group, said in a press release. 

The study authors focused on the climate and renewable energy policies of more than 25 countries, The Guardian reported. All […]

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