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Recent years have been marked by two conspicuous developments in the political landscape. The first one is the rising wave of nationalism in Europe reflected in increased parliamentary representation of far-right parties, both nationally and on EU level, which has probably reached its zenith with the successful Brexit campaign. The second one is the growing concern for and increasing engagement in addressing the burning issue of climate change and environmentalism. This paper embarks on deciphering the interconnection between the two developments. The objective of this thesis is to perform mapping of the current positions of Europe's far right on the environmental and climate agenda. For this purpose, I have performed a qualitative content analysis of the 2019 EP election programmes/manifestos of seven European far-right parties. The analysis is framed within four related concepts: 1) climate scepticism; 2) climate change visà-vis globalisation; 3) the role of international organisations/instruments in addressing climate change; and 4) energy transition. The results of the analysis show that, despite the parties sharing the same ideology and system of values, they do not have a uniform stance on climatechange and environmentalism and their attitude towards these issues varies considerably

Delivering a Climate Neutral Europe summarises the achievements of 25 years of EU Climate Policy, with the emphasis on what has been achieved under the Green Deal. It also highlights climate issues on the table of policy makers in the next European policy cycle 2024–2029.

Curated by Jos Delbeke, one of the foremost experts in this field, the chapters are all written by responsible officials of the EU Commission services, who were deeply involved in the negotiations related to the legislation they prepared. They explain how ambitious targets were prepared for 2030 and 2050 in view of implementing the commitments taken in 2015 under the Paris Agreement and present the overall architecture of the policy to counter the idea that an avalanche of legislative action is being developed without much structure. In particular, this book examines the carbon pricing tool that Europe implemented under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), the differentiated targets Member States have to deliver and climate-relevant EU legislation in the fields of energy, transport, industry, finance and agriculture and forestry. The authors also discuss the upcoming headwinds in the form of a growing scepticism in public opinion, and the impact of the wars in the close neighbourhood of the European continent.

Written as a follow-up to previous publications EU Climate Policy Explained and Towards a Climate-Neutral Europe, this new volume will be a vital resource for students, scholars and policy makers alike who are researching and working in the areas of climate change, environmental governance and EU policy more broadly.

Climate scepticism in the sense of climate denialism or contrarianism is not a new phenomenon, but it has recently been very much in the media spotlight. When, in November 2009, emails by climate scientists were published on the internet without their authors' consent, a debate began in which climate sceptic bloggers used an extended network of metaphors to contest (climate) science. This article follows the so-called 'climategate' debate on the web and shows how a paradoxical mixture of religious metaphors and demands for 'better science' allowed those disagreeing with the theory of anthropogenic climate change to undermine the authority of science and call for political inaction with regard to climate change.

The contextual drivers of climate change scepticism are well described and explained in the literature. A key assumption underlying most of the scholarly constructions of the sceptical phenomenon is that the key objections raised by sceptics to climate science and climate policy proposals represent some form of submerged deception or self-delusion on their part. This article refocuses attention on sceptics' central criticisms, and argues that direct responses to these criticisms should not be neglected in favor of a primary focus on sceptics' possible inner motivations. The article investigates the core objections raised by sceptics, with particular attention to the views of one prominent Australian sceptic, Andrew Bolt. We argue that some of these objections should be treated as legitimate forms of dissent, and that ongoing constructive responses to such criticisms are necessary to counter the impact of climate change scepticism.

In September 2013 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its first comprehensive assessment of physical climate science in six years, constituting a critical event in the societal debate about climate change. This paper analyses the nature of this debate in one public forum: Twitter. Using webometric methods, tweets were analyzed to discover the hashtags used when people tweeted about the IPCC report, and how Twitter users formed communities around their conversational connections. In short, the paper presents the topics and tweeters at this particular moment in the climate debate.The most used hashtags related to themes of science, geographical location and social issues connected to climate change. Particularly noteworthy were tweets connected to Australian politics, US politics, geoengineering and fracking. Three communities of Twitter users were identified. Researcher coding of Twitter users showed how these varied according to geographical location and whether users were convinced or critical of climate science or policy in their Twitter usage. Overall, users were most likely to converse with users holding similar views. However, two communities displayed significant links between climate convinced and critical users, suggesting that those engaged in the climate debate were exposed to views contrasting with their own.

This article charts the development of a label that appeared early on in Australian debates on climate change, namely 'greenhouse sceptics'. We explore who uses the label, for what purposes and with which effects, and how this label may contribute to the development of social representations in the climate debate. Our findings show that over the last 25 years, 'greenhouse sceptic' has been used by journalists and climate scientists to negativize those criticizing mainstream climate science, but that it has also been used, even embraced, by Australian climate sceptics to label themselves in order to construct a positive identity modelled on celebrity sceptics in the United States. We found that the label was grounded in religious metaphors that frame mainstream science as a catastrophist and alarmist religious cult. Overall, this article provides detailed insights into the genealogy of climate scepticism in a particular cultural and historical context.

Lié aux « controverses climatiques », le phénomène de la négation du changement climatique fait partie d'une tendance plus globale qui consiste en la mise en question de la science ou des conséquences tirées des connaissances scientifiques (comme les politiques de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre). Ce phénomène a eu et a toujours un retentissement et des effets importants dans nos sociétés ; il résulte d'une convergence de facteurs différents (psychologiques, économiques, politiques, idéologiques, communicationnels…) qui en font une sorte de symbole troublant de notre époque.

Lié aux « controverses climatiques », le phénomène de la négation du changement climatique fait partie d'une tendance plus globale qui consiste en la mise en question de la science ou des conséquences tirées des connaissances scientifiques (comme les politiques de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre). Ce phénomène a eu et a toujours un retentissement et des effets importants dans nos sociétés ; il résulte d'une convergence de facteurs différents (psychologiques, économiques, politiques, idéologiques, communicationnels…) qui en font une sorte de symbole troublant de notre époque.

Throughout history scepticism and the urge to question accepted truths has been a powerful force for change and growth. Today, as we are bombarded by adverts, scientific studies praising the latest superfoods, and political rhetoric, a healthy amount of scepticism is widely encouraged. But when is such scepticism legitimate - for example, as a driver of new ideas - and when is it problematic? And what role might adopting a sceptical outlook play in leading an intellectually virtuous life? Duncan Pritchard explores both the advantages of scepticism, in challenging outdated notions, and also how it can have unhelpful social consequences, in generating distrust. He considers the role of scepticism at the source of contemporary social and political movements such as climate change denial, post-truth politics, and fake news.

This book examines the arguments made by political actors in the creation of antagonistic discourses on climate change. Using in-depth empirical research from Sweden, a country considered by the international political community to be a frontrunner in tackling climate change, it draws out lessons that contribute to the worldwide environmental debate.The book identifies and analyses four globally circulated discourses that call for very different action to be taken to achieve sustainability: Industrial fatalism, Green Keynesianism, Eco-socialism and Climate scepticism. Drawing on risk society a