Prof. Aseem Prakash and colleague Prof. Nives Dolšak ask whether recent climate policy news is good or bad?
Climate news is confusing these days. Some claim immense progress in climate policy, while others paint a dismal picture. Two factors might explain the “doom vs. optimism” debate: specific issue areas under consideration and the time period of the analysis. To address policy stall and backside, we suggest adopting the "listen to politics" approach. While historically climate denialism played a key role in fostering policy opposition, now this opposition is rooted in transition costs being concentrated on specific communities. To speed up policy progress, the concerns of these communities should be addressed....
Yet, long-term trends look promising. At an ideological level, climate denial is fast disappearing. Most agree that climate change is happening, is caused by human action, and will affect their local communities. The debate is about how to address it, especially who will bear the transition costs.
Please link here for the full article.